THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


GIFT  OF 


PROFESSOR 
ROBERT  K.  SPAULDING 


L/ 


L.^  /rn 


SUPLEE'S    TRENCH 


STUDY   OF  WORDS 


SUPLEE'S  TRENCH  ON  WORDS. 


ON  THE 

STUDY  OF  WORDS 

LECTURES 

ADDRESSED   (ORIGINALLY)   TO   THE   PUPILS    AT 

THE  DIOCESAN  TRAINING-SCHOOL,  WINCHESTER 

BY 

RICHARD  CHENEVIX  TRENCH,  D.D. 

archbishop  of  dublin. 

from  the  latest  revised  english  edition. 

With  an  Exhaustive  Analysis,  Additional  Words  for 
Illustration,  and  Questions  for  Examination. 

BY 

THOMAS  D.  SUPLEE, 

HEAD  MASTER  OF  ST.  AUGUSTINE'S  COLLEGE,  BENICIA,  CALIFORNIA 


NEW  YORK 

A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  &  SON 

714  Broadway 

1881 


Copyright, 

W.  J.  WIDDLETON. 

1877. 


LOAN  STACK 
GIFT 


PREFATORY   NOTE. 


IT  is  now  twenty-six  years  since  Dean  Trench's  book 
"  On  the  Study  of  Words  "  was  first  given  to  the  piibhc. 
Originally  addressed  to  the  pupils  of  the  Diocesan  Training 
School  at  Winchester,  in  the  shape  of  lectures,  and  retaining 
that  form  in  publication,  the  book  was  but  poorly  adapted 
for  use  in  the  school-room  as  a  text-book.  The  editor  has 
long  deplored  this,  in  common  with  many  other  teachers  ; 
hence  no  apology  is  necessary  for  the  appearance  of  the 
present  volume.  The  advantages  claimed  for  it,  over  all 
other  editions,  are  about  as  follows  : 

1.  A  complete  and  exhaustive  analysis  of  the  revised 
text  has  been  added. 

2.  A  set  of  questions  has  been  prepared,  designed  not 
only  to  call  forth  the  facts  stated  by  the  author,  but  also  to 
follow  up  lines  of  thought  suggested  by  him. 

3.  At  the  end  of  each  lecture  a  list  of  words  has  been 
added,  illustrating  its  various  topics,  and  intended  to  en- 
courage original  research  on  the  part  of  the  pupil. 

The  new  arrangement  01  the  text,  analysis,  and  questions 
cannot  fail  to  be  of  great  assistance  both  to  the  teacher  and 

495 


O  PREFATORY  NOTE. 

pupi].  It  is  recommended  that  the  latter  be  compelled  to 
commit  the  outlines  and  exercises  to  memory,  place  them 
on  the  blackboard,  and  then,  assuming  the  r6le  of  lecturer, 
proceed  to  expand  the  leading  ideas.  In  this  way  the  best 
results  of  the  analytical  method  of  teaching  are  secured, 
and  the  pupil  is  trained  to  think  and  talk  while  on  the  floor. 
As  these  helps  have  already  been  of  great  service  to  the 
editor  in  the  work  of  teaching,  it  is  hoped  that  they  may 
also  assist  others,  now  that  they  are  associated  with  the 
following  lectures. 

Thomas  D.  Supl^e. 
Benicia,  Cal.,  July  ^^  1877. 


PREFACE    TO   THE    FIRST   EDITION. 


THESE  lectures  will  not,  I  trust,  be  found  any- 
where to  have  left  out  of  sight  seriously,  or  for 
long,  the  peculiar  needs  of  those  for  whom  they  were 
originally  intended,  and  to  whom  they  were  prima- 
rily addressed.  I  am  conscious,  indeed,  here  and 
there,  of  a  certain  departure  from  my  first  intention, 
having  been  in  part  seduced  to  this  by  a  circumstance 
which  I  had  not  in  the  least  contemplated  when  I  ob- 
tained permission  to  deliver  them,  by  finding,  namely, 
that  I  should  have  other  hearers  besides  the  pupils  of 
the  Training-School.  Some  matter  adapted  for  those 
rather  than  for  these  I  was  thus  led  to  introduce — 
which  afterwards  I  was  unwilling,  in  preparing  for  the 
press,  to  remove  ;  on  the  contrary  adding  to  it  rather, 
in  the  hope  of  obtaining  thus  a  somewhat  wider  circle 
of  readers  than  I  could  have  hoped,  had  I  more  rig- 
idly restricted  myself  in  the  choice  of  my  materials. 
Yet  I  should  greatly  regret  to  have  admitted  so  much 
of  this  as  should  deprive  these  lectures  of  their  fitness 
for  those  whose  profit  in  writing  and  in  publishing  I 
had  mainly  in  view,  namely,  schoolmasters  and  those 
preparing  to  be  such. 

Had  I  known  any  book  entering  with  any  fulness, 


8  PREFACE. 

and  in  a  popular  manner,  into  the  subject-matter  of 
these  pages,  and  making  it  its  exclusive  theme,  I 
might  still  have  delivered  these  lectures,  but  should 
scarcely  have  sought  for  them  a  wider  audience  than 
their  first,  gladly  leaving  the  matter  in  their  hands, 
whose  studies  in  language  had  been  fuller  and  riper 
than  my  own.  But  abundant  and  ready  to  hand  as 
are  the  materials  for  such  a  book,  I  did  not ;  while 
yet  it  seems  to  me  that  the  subject  is  one  to  which  it 
is  beyond  measure  desirable  that  their  attention,  who 
are  teaching,  or  shall  have  hereafter  to  teach  others, 
should  be  directed  ;  so  that  they  shall  learn  to  regard 
language  as  one  of  the  chiefest  organs  of  their  own 
education  and  that  of  others.  For  I  am  persuaded 
that  I  have  used  no  exaggeration  in  saying,  that  for 
many  a  young  man  *'his  first  discovery  that  words 
are  living  powers,  has  been  like  the  dropping  of 
scales  from  his  eyes,  like  the  acquiring  of  another 
sense,  or  the  introduction  into  a  new  world," — while 
yet  all  this  maybe  indefinitely  deferred,  may,  indeed, 
never  find  place  at  all,  unless  there  is  some  one  at 
hand  to  help  for  him,  and  to  hasten  the  process  ;  and 
he  who  so  does,  will  ever  after  be  esteemed  by  him  as 
one  of  his  very  foremost  benefactors.  Whatever  may 
be  Home  Tooke's  shortcomings  (and  they  are  great), 
whether  in  details  of  etymology,  or  in  the  philosophy 
of  grammar,  or  in  matters  more  serious  still,  yet, 
with  all  this,  what  an  epoch  in  many  a  student's  in- 
tellectual life  has  been  his  first  acquaintance  with  The 
Diversions  of  Purlcy.  And  they  were  not  among  the 
least  of  the  obligations  Avhich  the  young  men  of  our 
time   owed   to  Coleridge,  that  he  so   often  himself 


PREFACE.  9 

weighed  words  in  the  balances,  and  so  earnestly- 
pressed  upon  all  with  whom  his  voice  went  for  any- 
thing, the  profit  which  they  would  find  in  so  doing. 
Nor,  with  the  certainty  that  I  am  anticipating  much 
in  my  little  volume,  can  I  refrain  from  quoting  some 
words  which  were  not  present  with  me  during  its  com- 
position, although  I  must  have  been  famihar  with 
them  long  ago  ;  words  which  express  excellently  well 
why  it  is  that  these  studies  profit  so  much,  and  which 
will  also  explain  the  motives  which  induced  me  to 
add  my  little  contribution  to  their  furtherance : 

"  A  language  will  often  be  wiser,  not  merely  than 
the  vulgar,  but  even  than  the  wisest  of  those  who 
speak  it.  Being  like  amber  in  its  efficacy  to  circu- 
late the  electric  spirit  of  truth,  it  is  also  like  amber 
in  embalming  and.  preserving  the  relics  of  ancient 
wisdom,  although  one  is  not  seldom  puzzled  to 
decipher  its  contents.  Sometimes  it  locks  up  truths, 
which  were  once  well  known,  but  which,  in  the 
course  of  ages,  have  passed  out  of  sight  and  been 
forgotten.  In  other  cases  it  holds  the  germs  of 
truths,  of  which,  though  they  were  never  plainly 
discerned,  the  genius  of  its  framers  caught  a  glimpse 
in  a  happy  moment  of  divination.  A  meditative  m.an 
cannot  refrain  from  wonder,  when  he  digs  down  to 
the  deep  thought  lying  at  the  root  of  many  a  meta- 
phorical term,  employed  for  the  designation  of 
spiritual  things,  even  of  those  with  regard  to  which 
professing  philosophers  have  blundered  grossly  ;  and 
often  it  would  seem  as  though  rays  of  truth,  which 
were  still  below  the  intellectual  horizon,  had  dawned 
upon  the  imagination  as  it  was  looking  up  to  heaven. 
I* 


10  PREFACE. 

Hence  they  who  feel  an  inward  call  to  teach  and 
enlighten  their  countrymen,  should  deem  it  an  im- 
portant part  of  their  duty  to  draw  out  the  stores  of 
thought  which  are  already  latent  in  their  native 
language,  to  purify  it  from  the  corruptions  which 
Time  brings  upon  all  things,  and  from  which  language 
has  no  exemption,  and  to  endeavor  to  give  distinct- 
ness and  precision  to  whatever  in  it  is  confused,  or 
obscure,  or  dimly  seen." — Guesses  at  Truth,  First 
Series y  p.  295. 

Itchenstoke,  Oct.  9,  185 1. 


GENERAL   OUTLINE   OF   LECTURES, 


LECTURE   I. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

I.  Study  of  words  not  tedious. 

II.  Language  fossil  poetry. 
IIL  "         "    ethics. 

IV.  "  "    history. 

V.  Origin  of  language. 

VI.  Language  of  savage  tribes. 

VII.  Poverty  of  languages. 

VIII.  Savage  vocabularies. 

IX.  Words  the  guardians  of  thoughts. 

X.  The  birth  of  language. 

XI.  Greatness  of  a  language. 

XII.  Agreement  between  names  and  things. 

XIII.  Names  changed  to  worse. 

XIV.  Prophecy  in  names. 
XV.  Significance  of  names. 

XVI.  Words,  implements  of  teaching. 

LECTURE  II. 

ON   THE   POETRY  IN   WORDS. 

I.  Unconscious  poetry. 
II.  Poetry  of  popular  language. 

III.  *'      in  the  names  of  places. 

IV.  "  «  ««      flowers. 
V.        *'            «           '«      animals. 

VI.   Poetic  legends  in  words. 
VII.  Revival  of  poetry  in  words. 


12  OUTLINE   OF   LECTURES. 

VIII.   Poetry  of  nomenclature. 
IX.         "      in  architectural  terms. 
X.         "       "  the  changes  of  words. 
XL  Man  a  born  poet. 

LECTURE   IIL 

ON    THE   MORALITY    IN    WORDS. 

I.  The  witness  of  language. 
II.   Records  of  sin  in  language. 

III.  Degeneration  of  words. 

IV.  Elevation  of  words. 

V.  Attestations  to  God's  truth  in  words. 
VI.  Failings  of  the  human  heart  shown  by  words, 
VII.   Moral  perversity  in  words. 
VIII.  The  fatalist's  use  of  words. 
IX.  Fair  words  for  ugly  things. 

X.   Question-begging  words. 
XI.  National  morals  in  words. 
XII.  Absence  of  words  from  a  language. 
XIII.  Potency  of  words. 

LECTURE   IV. 

ON    THE   HISTORY    IN    WORDS. 

I.  Consanguinity  of  languages. 

II.  Saxon  and  Norman  relations. 

III.  Language  the  oldest  history. 

IV.  History  in  single  words. 

V.  Contributions  of  the  Crusades. 
VI.  "  **      Church. 

VII.  "  "      Schoolmen. 

VIII.  Influence  of  words  on  opinions. 

IX.  Legends  in  natural  history. 

X.  Historical  misnomers. 

XI.  Importance  of  correctness  in  naming. 

XII.  Names  of  parties,  sects,  and  officials. 

XIII.  History  of  commerce  in  words. 

XIV.  Transformation  of  proper  names. 
XV.  Names  drawn  from  books. 


OUTLINE   OF   LECTURES.  1 3 

XVI.   Mistakes  in  words  and  etymologies. 
XVII.   Words  embodying  past  customs  and  errors 
XVIII,   Legends  in  words. 
XIX.  Needless  scruples  about  words. 
XX.   Rise  and  fall  of  words. 


LECTURE   V. 

ON   THE    RISE   OF   NEW   WORDS. 

I.  First  appearance  of  woi-ds. 
II.  Rise  of  the  term  "  Christians." 

III.  How  new  words  become  necessary. 

IV.  Christianity  and  the  classical  languages. 
V.  Effect  of  increased  knowledge  on  words. 

VI.  Deliberate  coining  of  words. 

VII.  Wants  detected  and  supplied. 

VIII.  Cicero's  coinings. 

IX.  Comprehensive  words. 

X.  Scientific  gains. 

XI.  New  things  require  new  names. 

XII.  French  contributions. 

XIII.  Contributions  of  English  history. 

XIV.  Comic  words. 

XV.  Resistance  to  new  words. 

XVI.  Late  birth  of  new  words. 

XVII.  Naturalization  of  words. 

XVIII.  Popular  origin  of  words. 

XIX.  Derivations  forgotten  or  lost  sight  o£ 

XX.  "  irrecoverable. 

XXI.  Parentage  of  words. 

XXII.  Testimony  of  Whewell. 

LECTURE   VI. 

ON  THE  DISTINCTION    OF  WORDS. 

I.  Definition  and  discussion  of  synonyms. 

II.  Difficulties  of  translation. 

III.  Words  liable  to  be  confounded, 

IV.  How  synonyms  exist. 


14  OUTLINE  OF  LECTURES. 

V.  Process  of  desjmonymizing. 
VI,   Words  which  require  nice  discrimination. 
VII.  Duplicate  words. 
VIII.   Words  once  synonymous. 
IX.  Greek  and  Latin  synonyms. 

X.  Synonyms  having  fundamental  etymological  distinctions. 
XI.  Improper  synonyms. 
XII.  Present  value  of  words. 

XIII.  Milton's  etymologies, 

XIV.  Moral  gain  of  synonyms. 
XV.  Synonyms  in  controversy. 

XVI.   Historical  synonyms. 
XVII.  Habit  of  distinguishing  synonyms^ 
XVIII.  Words  left  unemployed. 
XIX.  Truth  and  falsehood  of  words. 

LECTURE  VII. 

THE  schoolmaster's   USE  OF  WORDS. 

T.  The  material  helps  of  education. 
II.   Learning  and  teaching. 

III,  Etymological  resemblances. 

IV.  Random  etymologies. 
V.  Accidental  coincidences. 

VI.   Phonetic  spelling. 
VII.  Relationship  of  words. 
VIII.  Heterodynamic  words. 
IX.  Words  which  provoke  and  reward  inquiry. 
X.  Classics,  why  so  called. 
XI.  Words  borrowed  from  life. 
XII,  Relaxation  and  amusement  in  the  study  of  wordSL 

XIII.  Significance  of  the  names  of  places. 

XIV.  Social  and  political  changes  in  names. 
XV.  Words  compared  to  money. 

XVI.  Church  words. 
XVII.  Latin  words  in  an  English  dress. 


ON 

THE   STUDY  OF  WORDS, 


INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE, 

THERE  afe  few  who  would  not  readily  acknowl- 
edge that  mainly  in  worthy  books  are  preserved 
and  hoarded  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge 
which  the  world  has  accumulated ;  and  that  chiefly 
by  aid  of  these  they  are  handed  down  from  one 
generation  to  another.  I  shall  urge  on  you  in  these 
lectures  something  different  from  this  ;  namely,  that 
not  in  books  only,  which  all  acknowledge,  nor  yet  in 
connected  oral  discourse,  but  often  also  in  words  con- 
templated singly,  there  are  boundless  stores  of  moral 
and  historic  truth,  and  no  less  of  passion  and  imagi- 
nation, laid  up — that  from  these,  lessons  of  infinite 
worth  may  be  derived,  if  only  our  attention  is  roused 
to  their  existence.  I  shall  urge  on  you  (though,  with 
teaching  such  as  you  enjoy,  the  subject  will  not  be 
new)  how  well  it  will  repay  you  to  study  the  words 
which  you  are  in  the  habit  of  using  or  of  meeting, 
be  they  such  as  relate  to  highest  spiritual  things,  or 
our  common  words  of  the  shop  and  the  market,  and 
of  all  the  familiar  intercourse  of  life.     It  will  indeed 


l6  INTRODUCTORV   LECTURE. 

repay  you  far  better  than  you  can  easily  believe.  I 
am  sure,  at  least,  that  for  many  a  young  man  his 
first  discovery  "of  the  fact,  that  words  are  living 
powers,  are  the  vesture,  yea,  even  the  body,  which 
thoughts  weave  for  themselves,  has  been  like  the 
dropping  of  scales  from  his  eyes,  like  the  acquiring 
of  another  sense,  or  the  introduction  into  a  new 
world  ;  he  is  never  able  to  cease  wondering  at  the 
moral  marvels  that  surround  him  on  every  side,  and 
ever  reveal  themselves  more  and  more  to  his  gaze. 

We  indeed  hear  it  not  seldom  said  that  ignorance 
is  the  mother  of  admiration.  No  falser  word  was 
ever  spoken,  and  hardly  a  more  mischievous  one ; 
implying,  as  it  does,  that  this  healthiest  exercise  of 
the  mind  rests,  for  the  most  part,  on  a  deceit  and  a 
delusion,  and  that  with  better  knowledge  it  would 
cease  ;  while,  in  truth,  for  once  that  ignorance  leads 
us  to  admire  that  which  with  fuller  insight  we  should 
perceive  to  be  a  common  thing,  and  one  therefore 
demanding  no  such  tribute  from  us,  a  hundred,  nay, 
a  thousand  times,  it  prevents  us  from  admiring  that 
which  is  admirable  indeed.  And  this  is  so,  whether 
we  are  moving  in  the  region  of  nature,  which  is  the 
region  of  God's  wonders,  or  in  the  region  of  art, 
which  is  the  region  of  man's  wonders  ;  and  nowhere 
truer  than  in  this  sphere  and  region  of  language, 
which  is  about  to  claim  us  now.  Oftentimes  here 
we  walk  up  and  down  in  the  midst  of  intellectual  and 
moral  marvels  with  a  vacant  eye  and  a  careless  mind, 
even  as  some  traveller  passes  unmoved  over  fields  of 
fame,  or  through  cities  of  ancient  renown — unmoved, 
because  utterly  unconscious  of  the  lofty  deeds  which 


STUDY  OF  WORDS   NOT   TEDIOUS.  17 

there  have  been  wrought,  of  the  great  hearts  which 
spent  themselves  there.  We,  hke  him,  wanting  the 
knowledge  and  insight  which  would  have  served  to 
kindle  admiration  in  us,  are  oftentimes  deprived  of 
this  pure  and  elevating  excitement  of  the  mind,  and 
miss  no  less  that  manifold  instruction  which  ever  lies 
about  our  path,  and  nowhere  more  largely  than  in 
our  daily  words,  if  only  we  knew  how  to  put  forth 
our  hands  and  make  it  our  own.  **What  riches," 
one  exclaims,  'Mie  hidden  in  the  vulgar  tongue  of 
our  poorest  and  most  ignorant.  What  flowers  of 
paradise  lie  under  our  feet,  with  their  beauties  and 
their  parts  undistinguished  and  undiscerned,  from 
having  been  daily  trodden  on." 

And  this  subject  upon  which  we  are  thus  entering 
ought  not  to  be  a  dull  or  uninteresting  one  in  the 
handling,  or  one  to  which  only  by  an  effort  you  will 
yield  the  attention  which  I  shall  claim.  If  it  shall 
prove  so,  this  I  fear  must  be  through  the  fault  of  my 
manner  of  treating  it;  for  certainly  in  itself  there  is 
no  study  which  may  be  made  at  once  more  instructive 
and  entertaining  than  the  study  of  the  use  and  abuse, 
the  origin  and  distinction  of  words,  with  an  investi- 
gation, sHght  though  it  may  be,  of  the  treasures  con- 
tained in  them  ;  which  is  exactly  that  which  I  now 
propose  to  myself  and  to  you.  I  remember  a  very 
learned  scholar,  to  whom  we  owe  one  of  our  best 
Greek  lexicons,  a  book  which  must  have  cost  him 
years,  speaking  in  the  preface  of  his  completed  work 
with  a  just  disdain  of  some,  who  complained  of  the 
irksome  drudgery  of  such  toils  as  those  which  had 
engaged  him  so  long, — toils  irksome,  forsooth,   be- 


1 8  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

cause  they  only  had  to  with  words  ;  disclaiming  any 
part  with  those  who  thus  asked  pity  for  themselves, 
as  though  they  were  so  many  galley-slaves  chained 
to  the  oar,  or  martyrs  who  had  offered  themselves 
for  the  good  of  the  literary  world.  He  declares 
that  the  task  of  classing,  sorting,  grouping,  compar- 
ing, tracing  the  derivation  and  usage  of  words,  had 
been  to  him  no  drudgery,  but  a  delight  and  labor  of 
love. 

And  if  this  may  be  true  in  regard  of  a  foreign 
tongue,  how  much  truer  ought  it  to  be  in  regard  of 
our  own,  of  our  ''mother  tongue,"  as  we  affection- 
ately call  it.  A  great  writer  not  very  long  departed 
from  us  has  borne  witness  at  once  to  the  pleasantness 
and  profit  of  this  study.  "  In  a  language,"  he  says, 
**  like  ours,  where  so  many  words  are  derived  from 
other  languages,  there  are  few  modes  of  instruction 
more  useful  or  more  amusing  than  that  of  accustom- 
ing young  people  to  seek  for  the  etymology  or  pri- 
mary meaning  of  the  words  they  use.  There  arc  cases 
in  which  more  knowledge  of  more  value  may  be  con- 
veyed by  the  history  of  a  word  than  by  the  history 
of  a  campaign." 

Impressing  the  same  truth,  Emerson  has  somewhere 
characterized  language  as  "fossil  poetry."  He  evi- 
dently means  that  just  as  in  some  fossil,  curious  and 
beautiful  shapes  of  vegetable  or  animal  life,  the 
graceful  fern  or  the  finely  vertebrated  lizard,  such  as 
now,  it  may  be,  have  been  extinct  for  thousands 
of  years,  are  permanently  bound  up  with  the  stone, 
and  rescued  from  that  perishing  which  would  have 
otherwise    been   theirs, — so   in   words  are   beautifiiJ 


LANGUAGE  FOSSIL  POETRY.  19 

thoughts  and  images,  the  imagination  and  the  feehng 
of  past  ages,  of  men  long  since  in  their  graves,  of 
men  whose  very  names  have  perished,  these,  which 
would  so  easily  have  perished  too,  preserved  and 
made  safe  for  ever.  The  phrase  is  a  striking  one  ; 
the  only  fault  which  one  might  be  tempted  to  find 
with  it  is,  that  it  is  too  narrow.  Language  may  be, 
and  indeed  is,  this  **  fossil  poetry  ;  "  but  it  may  be 
affirmed  of  it  with  exactly  the  same  truth  that  it  is 
fossil  ethics  or  fossil  history.  Words  quite  as  often 
and  as  effectually  embody  facts  of  history,  or  con- 
victions of  the  moral  common  sense,  as  of  the  imagi- 
nation or  passion  of  men  :  even  as,  so  far  as  that 
moral  sense  may  be  perverted,  they  will  bear  witness 
and  keep  a  record  of  that  perversion.  On  all  these 
points  I  shall  enter  at  full  in  after  lectures  ;  but  I  may 
give  by  anticipation  a  specimen  or  two  of  what  I 
mean,  to  make  from  the  first  my  purpose  and  plan 
more  fully  intelligible  to  all. 

Language,  then,  is  fossil  poetry;  in  other  words, 
we  are  not  to  look  for  the  poetry  which  a  people 
may  possess  only  in  its  poems,  or  its  poetical  customs, 
traditions,  and  beliefs.  Many  a  single  word  also  is 
itself  a  concentrated  poem,  having  stores  of  poetical 
thought  and  imagery  laid  up  in  it.  Examine  it,  and 
it  will  be  found  to  rest  on  some  deep  analogy  of 
things  natural  and  things  spiritual  ;  bringing  those 
to  illustrate  and  to  give  an  abiding  form  and  body  to 
these.  The  image  may  have  grown  trite  and  ordi- 
nary now  ;  perhaps  through  the  help  of  this  very 
word  may  have  become  so  entirely  the  heritage  of 
all,  as  to  seem  little  better  than  a  commonplace  ;  yet 


20  -INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

not  the  less  he  who  first  discerned  the  relation,  and 
devised  the  new  word  which  should  express  it,  or 
gave  to  an  old,  never  before  but  literally  used,  this 
new  and  figurative  sense,  this  man  was  in  his  degree 
a  poet — a  maker,  that  is,  of  things  which  were  not 
before,  which  would  not  have  existed  but  for  him,  or 
for  some  other  gifted  with  equal  powers.  He  who 
spake  first  of  a  *  dilapidated '  fortune,  what  an 
image  must  have  risen  up  before  his  mind's  eye  of 
some  faUing  house  or  palace,  stone  detaching  itself 
from  stone,  till  all  had  gradually  sunk  into  desolation 
and  ruin.  Or  he  who  to  that  Greek  word  which  sig- 
nifies **  that  which  will  endure  to  be  held  up  to  and 
judged  by  the  sunhght,"  gave  first  its  ethical  signifi- 
cation of  *  sincere,'  *  truthful,*  or  as  we  sometimes 
say,  *  transparent,'  can  we  deny  to  him  the  poet's 
feeling  and  eye  ?  Many  a  man  had  gazed,  we  are 
sure,  at  the  jagged  and  indented  mountain  ridges  of 
Spain,  before  one  called  them  *  sierras  '  or  *  saws,' 
the  name  by  which  now  they  are  known,  as  Sierra 
Morena,  Sierra  Nevada  ;  but  that  man  coined  his 
imagination  into  a  word  which  will  endure  as  long  as 
the  everlasting  hills  which  he  named. 

But  it  was  said  just  now  that  words  often  contain  a 
witness  for  great  moral  truths — God  having  pressed 
such  a  seal  of  truth  upon  language,  that  men  are  con- 
tinually uttering  deeper  things  than  they  know,  as- 
serting mighty  principles,  it  may  be  asserting  them 
against  themselves,  in  words  that  to  them  may  seem 
nothing  more  than  the  current  coin  of  society.  Thus 
to  what  grand  moral  purposes  Bishop  Butler  turns 
the   word    *  pastime ; '  how    solemn    the    testimony 


BISHOP   BUTLER'S   USE   OF   PASTIME.  21 

•which  he  compels  the  world,  out  of  its  own  use  of 
this  word,  to  render  against  itself — obliging  it  to  own 
that  its  amusements  and  pleasures  do  not  really  sat- 
isfy the  mind  and  fill  it  with  the  sense  of  an  abiding 
and  satisfying  joy  ;"^  they  are  only  *  pastime  '  ;  they 
serve  only,  as  this  word  confesses,  to  pass  away  the 
tirney  to  prevent  it  from  hanging,  an  intolerable 
burden,  on  men's  hands  :  all  which  they  can  do  at  the 
best  is  to  prevent  men  from  discovering  and  attend- 
ing to  their  own  internal  poverty  and  dissatisfaction 
and  want.  He  might  have  added  that  there  is  the 
same  acknowledgment  in  the  word  *  diversion,* 
which  means  no  more  than  that  which  diverts  or 
turns  us  aside  from  ourselves,  and  in  this  way  helps  us 
to  forget  ourselves  for  a  little.  And  thus  it  would 
appear  that,  even  according  to  the  world's  own  con- 
fession, all  which  it  proposes  is — not  to  make  us 
happy,  but  a  little  to  prevent  us  from  remembering 
that  we  arc  unhappy,  to  pass  away  our  time,  to  divert 
us  from  ourselves.  While  on  the  other  hand  we  de- 
clare that  the  good  which  will  really  fill  our  souls 
and  satisfy  them  to  the  uttermost,  is  not  in  us,  but 

*  Sermon  xiv.  Upon  the  Love  of  God.  Curiously  enough,  Mon- 
taigne has,  in  his  Essays,  drawn  the  same  testimony  out  of  the  word : 
*'  This  ordinary  phrase  of  Pass-time,  and  passing  away  the  time,  repre- 
sents the  customs  of  those  wise  sort  of  people,  who  think  they  cannot 
have  a  better  account  of  their  lives,  than  to  let  them  run  out  and  slide 
away,  to  pass  them  over  and  to  baulk  them,  and  as  much  as  they  can, 
to  take  no  notice  of  them  and  to  shun  them,  as  a  thing  of  troublesome 
and  contemptible  quality.  But  I  know  it  to  be  another  kind  of  thing, 
and  find  it  both  valuable  and  commodious  even  in  its  latest  decay, 
wherein  I  now  enjoy  it,  and  nature  has  delivered  it  into  our  hands  in 
such  and  so  favorable  circumstances  that  we  commonly  complain  of 
ourselves,  if  it  be  troublesome  to  us  or  slide  unprofitable  away." 


22  INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE. 

without  us  and  above  us,  in  the  words  which  we 
use  to  set  forth  any  transcending  dehght.  Take 
three  or  four  of  these  words — *  transport,'  *  rapture,' 

*  ravishment,'  '  ecstasy,' — '  transport,'  that  which 
carries  us,  as  *  rapture,'  or  *  ravishment,'  that 
which  snatches  us  out  of  and  above  ourselves  ;  and 

*  ecstasy  '  is  very  nearly  the  same,  only  drawn  from 
the  Greek. 

And  not  less,  where  a  perversion  of  the  moral  sense 
has  found  place,  words  preserve  oftentimes  a  record 
of  this  perversion.  We  have  a  signal  example  of  this, 
in  the  use,  or  rather  the  misuse,  of  the  word  '  re- 
ligion,' during  all  the  ages  of  Papal  domination  in 
Europe.  A  *  rehgious  '  person  did  not  mean  any  one 
who  felt  and  allowed  the  bonds  that  bound  him  to 
God  and  to  his  fellow-men,  but  one  who  had  taken 
pecuHar  vows  upon  him,  a  member  of  one  of  the 
monkish  orders  ;  a  *  religious '  house  did  not  mean, 
nor  does  it  now  mean  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  a 
Christian  household,  ordered  in  the  fear  of  God,  but 
a  house  in  which  these  persons  were  gathered  to- 
gether according  to  the  rule  of  some  man.  A  *  re- 
ligion '  meant  not  a  service  of  God,  but  a  monastic 
Order  ;  and  taking  the  monastic  vows  was  termed 
going  into  a  *  religion.'  What  a  light  does  this  one 
word  so  used  throw  on  the  entire  state  of  mind  and 
habits  of  thought  in  those  ages  !  That  then  was  *  re- 
ligion,' and  nothing  else  was  deserving  of  the  name  ! 
And  *  religious '  was  a  title  which  might  not  be  given 
to  parents  and  children,  husbands  and  wives,  men 
and  women  fulfilling  faithfully  and  holily  in  the  world 
the  several  duties  of  their  stations,  but  only  to  those 


LANGUAGE  FOSSIL  HISTORY.  23 

who  had  devised  such  a  self-chosen  service  for  them- 
selves.* 

But  language  is  fossil  history  as  well.  What  a 
record  of  great  social  revolutions,  revolutions  in 
nations  and  in  the  feelings  of  nations,  the  one  word 
'frank'  contains,  which  is  used,  as  we  all  know,  to 
express  aught  that  is  generous,  straightforward,  and 
free.  The  Franks,  I  need  not  remind  you,  were  a 
powerful  German  tribe,  or  association  of  tribes,  who 
gave  themselves!  this  proud  name  of  the  **  franks" 
or  the  free ;  and  who,  at  the  breaking  up  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  possessed  themselves  of  Gaul,  to 
which  they  gave  their  own  name.  They  were  the 
ruling  conquering  people,  honorably  distinguished 
frOm  the  Gauls  and  degenerate  Romans  among  whom 
they  established  themselves  by  their  independence, 
their  love  of  freedom,  their  scorn  of  a  lie ;  they  had, 
in  short,  the  virtues  which  belong  to  a  conquering 
and  dominant  race  in  the  midst  of  an  inferior  and 
conquered  one.  And  thus  it  came  to  pass  that  by 
degrees  the  name  '  frank '  indicated  not  merely  a 
national,  but  involved  a  moral,  distinction  as  well  ; 
and  a  '  frank'  man  was  synonymous  not  merely  with 

*  A  reviewer  ia  Fraser^s  Magazine^  Dec,  1851,  doubts  whether  I 
have  not  here  pushed  my  assertion  too  far.  So  far  from  this,  it  was 
not  merely  the  "popular  language"  which  this  corruption  had  invaded, 
but  a  decree  of  the  great  Fourth  Lateran  Council  (a.d.  1215),  forbid- 
ding the  further  multiplication  of  monastic  Orders,  runs  thus :  Ne 
nimia  religionum  diversitas  gravem  in  Ecclesia  Dei  confusionem  in- 
ducat,  firmiter  prohibemus,  ne  quis  de  cetero  novam  religionem  in- 
veniat,  sed  quicunque  voluerit  ad  religioneiti  converti,  unam  de  appro- 
batis  assumat. 

f  Pott  {Etym.  Forsch.^  vol.  ii.  pt.  ii.  p.  869)  does  not  consider  this 
explanation  of  the  name  *  Franks '  as  lifted  above  all  doubt. 


24  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE, 

a  man  of  the  conquering  German  race,  but  was  an 
epithet  appHed  to  any  man  possessed  of  certain  high 
moral  quaUties,  which  for  the  most  part  appertained 
to,  and  were  found  only  in,  men  of  that  stock  ;  and 
thus  in  men's  daily  discourse,  when  they  speak  of  a 
person  as  being  *  frank,'  or  when  they  use  the 
words  *  franchise,'  *  enfranchisement,'  to  express  civil 
liberties  and  immunities,  their  language  here  is  the 
outgrowth,  the  record,  and  the  result  of  great  historic 
changes,  bears  testimony  to  facts  of  history,  whereof 
it  may  well  happen* that  the  speakers  have  never 
heard.*  The  word  *  slave  '  has  undergone  a  process 
entirely  analogous,  although  in  an  opposite  direc- 
tion. "  The  martial  superiority  of  the  Teutonic  races 
enabled  them  to  keep  their  slave  markets  supplied 
with  captives  taken  from  the  Sclavonic  tribes. 
Hence,  in  all  the  languages  of  Western  Europe,  the 
once  glorious  name  of  Sclave  has  come  to  express 
the  most  degraded  condition  of  man.  What  centu- 
ries of  violence  and  warfare  does  the  history  of  this 
word  disclose."  f 

Having  given  by  anticipation  this  handful  of  ex- 
amples in  illustration  of  what  in  these  lectures  I  pro- 
pose, I  will,  before  proceeding  further,  make  a  few 
observations  on  a  subject,  which,  if  we  would  go  at 
all  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  we  can  scarcely  leave 
altogether   untouched — I    mean   the   origin    of    lan- 

*  •  Frank,'  though  thus  originally  a  German  word,  only  came  back 
to  Germany  from  France  in  the  seventeenth  century.  With  us  it  is 
found  in  the  sixteenth ;  but  scarcely  earlier. 

f  Isaac  Taylor,  Words  and  Places^  p.  441  ;  cf.  Gibbon,  Decline  and 
Fall,  c.  55, 


ORIGIN   OF   LANGUAGE.  2$ 

guage  in  which,  however,  we  will  not  entangle  our- 
selves deeper  than  we  need.  There  are,  or  rather 
there  have  been,  two  theories  about  this.  One,  and 
that  which  rather  has  been  than  now  is,  for  few  main- 
tain it  still,  would  put  language  on  the  same  level 
with  the  various  arts  and  inventions  with  which  man 
has  gradually  adorned  and  enriched  his  life.  It 
would  make  him  by  degrees  to  have  invented  it^ 
just  as  he  might  have  invented  any  of  these,  for 
himself;  and  from  rude  imperfect  beginnings,  the 
inarticulate  cries  by  which  he  expressed  his  natural 
wants,  the  sounds  by  which  he  sought  to  imitate 
the  impression  of  natural  objects  upon  him,  little  by 
little  to  have  arrived  at  that  wondrous  organ  of 
thought  and  feeling,  which  his  language  is  often  to 
him  now. 

It  might,  I  think,  be  sufficient  to  object  to  this 
explanation,  that  language  would  then  be  an  accident 
of  human  nature  ;  and,  this  being  the  case,  that  we 
certainly  should  somewhere  encounter  tribes  sunken 
so  low  as  not  to  possess  it ;  even  as  there  is  almost 
no  human  art  or  invention  so  obvious,  and  as  it 
seems  to  us  so  indispensable,  but  there  are  those 
who  have  fallen  below  its  knowledge  and  its  exer- 
cise'. But  with  language  it  is  not  so.  There  have 
never  yet  been  found  human  beings,  not  the  most 
degraded  horde  of  South  African  bushmen,  or  Papuan 
cannibals,  who  did  not  employ  this  means  of  inter- 
course with  one  another.  But  the  more  decisive 
objection  to  this  view  of  the  matter  is,  that  it  hangs 
together  with,  and  is  indeed  an  essential  part  of, 
that  theory  of  society,  which  is  contradicted  alike  by 
2 


26  INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE. 

every  page  of  Genesis,  and  every  notice  of  our  actual 
experience — the  *  urang-utang  theory/  as  it  has  been 
so  happily  termed — that,  I  mean,  according  to  which 
the  primitive  condition  of  man  was  the  savage  one, 
and  the  savage  himself  the  seed  out  of  which  in  due 
time  the  civiHzed  man  was  unfolded ;  whereas,  in 
fact,  so  far  from  being  this  living  seed,  he  might 
more  justly  be  considered  as  a  dead  withered  leaf,  torn 
violently  away  from  the  great  trunk  of  humanity' 
and  with  no  more  power  to  produce  anything  nobler 
than  himself  out  of  himself,  than  that  dead  withered 
leaf  to  unfold  itself  into  the  oak  of  the  forest.  So  far 
from  being  the  child  with  the  latent  capabilities  of 
manhood,  he  is  himself  rather  the  man  prematurely 
aged,  and  decrepit,  and  outworn. 

But  the  truer  answer  to  the  inquiry  how  language 
arose,  is  this  :  God  gave  man  language,  just  as  He 
gave  him  reason,  and  just  because  He  gave  him 
reason ;  for  what  is  man's  wprd  but  his  reason^ 
coming  forth  that  it  may  behold  itself  ?  They  are  in- 
deed so  essentially  one  and  the  same  that  the  Greek 
language  has  one  word  for  them  both.  He  gave  it 
to  him,  because  he  could  not  be  man,  that  is,  a  social 
being,  without  it.  Yet  this  must  not  be  taken  to 
affirm  that  man  started  at  the  first  furnished  with  a 
full-formed  vocabulary  of  words,  and  as  it  were  with 
his  first  dictionary  and  first  grammar  ready-made  to 
his  hands.  He  did  not  thus  begin  the  world  ivitk 
names ^  but  with  the  potver  of  naming :  for  man  is 
not  a  mere  speaking  machine  ;  God  did  not  teach 
him  words,  as  one  of  us  teaches  a  parrot,  from  with- 
out ;  but  gave  him  a  capacity,  and  then  evoked  the 


ORIGIN  OF  LANGUAGE.  2/ 

capacity  which  He  gave.  Here,  as  in  everything  else 
that  concerns  the  primitive  constitution,  the  great 
original  institutes,  of  humanity,  our  best  and  truest 
lights  are  to  be  gotten  from  the  study  of  the  first 
three  chapters  of  Genesis ;  and  you  will  observe  that 
there  it  is  not  God  who  imposed  the  first  names  on 
the  creatures,  but  Adam — Adam,  however,  at  the 
direct  suggestion  of  his  Creator.  He  brought  them 
all,  we  are  told,  to  Adam,  "  to  see  what  he  would  call 
them  ;  and  whatsoever  Adam  called  every  living 
creature,  that  was  the  name  thereof"  (Gen.  ii.  19). 
Here  we  have  the  clearest  intimation  of  the  origin,  at 
once  divine  and  human,  of  speech  :  while  yet  neither 
is  so  brought  forward  as  to  exclude  or  obscure  the 
other. 

And  so  far  we  may  concede  a  limited  amount 
of  right  to  those  who  have  held  a  progressive  acqui- 
sition, on  man's  part,  of  the  power  of  embodying 
thought  In  words.  I  believe  that  we  should  conceive 
the  actual  case  most  truly,  if  we  conceived  this  power 
of  naming  things  and  expressing  their  relations,  as 
one  laid  up  in  the  depths  of  man's  being,  one  of  the 
divine  capabilities  with  which  he  was  created  ;  but 
one  (and  In  this  differing  from  those  which  have  pro- 
duced In  various  people  various  arts  of  life)  which 
could  not  remain  dormant  in  him,  for  man  could  be 
only  man  through  Its  exercise  ;  which  therefore  did 
rapidly  bud  and  blossom  out  from  within  him  at 
every  solicitation  from  the  world  without,  or  from  his 
fellow-man  ;  as  each  object  to  be  named  appeared 
before  his  eyes,  each  relation  of  things  to  one  an- 
other arose  before  his  mind.     It  was  not  merely  the 


28  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

possible,  but  the  necessary  emanation  of  the  spirit 
with  which  he  had  been  endowed.  Man  makes  his 
own  language,  bt  t  he  makes  it  as  the  bee  makes  its 
cells,  as  the  bird  its  nest ;  he  cannot  do  otherwise.* 
How  this  latent  power  evolved  itself  first,  how  this 
spontaneous  generation  of  language  came  to  pass,  is 
a  mystery,  even  as  every  act  of  creation  is  of  neces- 
sity such  ;  and  as  a  mystery  all  the  deepest  inquirers 
into  the  subject  are  content  to  leave  it.  Yet  we  may 
perhaps  a  little  help  ourselves  to  the  realizing  of  what 
the  process  was,  and  what  it  was  not,  if  we  liken  it 
to  the  growth  of  a  tree  springing  out  of,  and  unfolding 
itself  from,  a  root,  and  according  to  a  necessary  law 
— that  root  being  the  divine  capacity  of  language  with 
which  man  was  created,  that  being  the  law  of  highest 

*  Renan  has  much  of  interest  on  this  matter,  both  in  his  work  De 
r  Origine  dii  Langage,  and  in  his  Hisi.  des  Langites  Simitiques.  I 
quote  from  the  latter,  p.  445  :  '*  Sans  doute  les  langues,  comme  tout 
ce  qui  est  organise,  sont  sujettes  a  la  loi  du  developpement  graduel. 
En  soutenant  que  le  langage  primitif  possedait  les  elements  necessaires 
^  son  integrite,  nous  sommes  loin  de  dire  que  les  mecauismes  d'un  age 
plus  avance  y  fussent  arrives  k  leur  pleine  existence.  Tout  y  etait, 
mais  confus6ment  et  sans  distinction.  Le  temps  seul  et  les  progres  de 
I'esprit  humain  pouvaient  operer  un  discernement  dans  cette  obscure 
synthese,  et  assigner  i  chaque  element  son  role  special.  La  vie,  en  un 
mot,  n'etait  ici,  comme  partout,  qu'^  la  condition  de  revolution  du 
germe  primitif,  de  la  distribution  des  roles  et  de  la  separation  des  or- 
ganes.  Mais  ces  organes  eux-memes  furent  determines  d^s  le  premier 
jour,  et  depuis  I'acte  gcnerateur  qui  le  fit  etre,  le  langage  ne  s'est  cn- 
richi  d'aucune  fonction  vraiment  nouvelle.  Un  germe  est  pose,  renfer- 
mant  en  puissance  tout  ce  que  I'etre  sera  un  jour  ;  le  germe  se  deve- 
loppe,  les  formes  se  constituent  dans  leurs  proportions  regulieres,  ce  qui 
etait  en  puissance  devient  en  acte ;  mais  rien  nese  cree,  rien  ne  s'ajoute  ; 
telle  est  la  loi  commune  des  etres  soumis  aux  conditions  de  la  vie. 
Telle  fut  aussi  la  loi  du  langage." 


LANGUAGE   OF   SAVAGE   TRIBES.  .  29 

reason  with  which  he  was  endowed  :  if  we  liken  it  to 
this  rather  than  to  the  rearing  of  a  house,  which  a 
man  should  slowly  and  painfully  fashion  for  himself 
with  dead  timbers  combined  after  his  own  fancy  and 
caprice  ;  and  which  little  by  little  improved  in  shape, 
material,  and  size,  being  first  but  a  log  house,  answer- 
ing his  barest  needs,  and  only  after  centuries  of  toil 
and  pain  growing  for  his  sons*  sons  into  a  stately 
palace  for  pleasure  and  delight. 

Were  it  otherwise,  were  the  savage  the  primitive 
man,  we  should  then  find  savage  tribes  furnished, 
scantily  enough,  it  might  be,  with  the  elements  of 
speech,  yet  at  the  same  time  with  its  fruitful  begin- 
nings, its  vigorous  and  healthful  germs.  But  what 
does  their  language  on  close  inspection  prove  ?  In 
every  case  what  they  are  themselves,  the  remnant 
and  ruin  of  a  better  and  a  nobler  past.  Fearful  in- 
deed is  the  impress  of  degradation  which  is  stamped 
on  the  language  of  the  savage,  more  fearful  perhaps 
even  than  that  which  is  stamped  upon  his  form. 
When  wholly  letting  go  the  truth,  when  long  and 
greatly  sinning  against  light  and  conscience,  a 
people  has  thus  gone  the  downward  way,  has  been 
scattered  off  by  some  violent  catastrophe  from  those 
regions  of  the  world  which  are  the  seats  of  ad- 
vance and  progress,  and  driven  to  its  remote  isles 
and  further  corners,  then  as  one  nobler  thought, 
one  spiritual  idea  after  another  has  perished  from  it, 
the  words  also  that  expressed  these  have  perished 
too.  As  one  habit  of  civilization  has  been  let  go 
after  another  the  words  which  those  habits  demanded 
have  dropped  as  well,  first  out  of  use,  and  then  out 


30  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

of  memory,  and  thus  after  a  while  have  been  wholly 
lost. 

Moffat,  in  his  Missionary  Labors  and  Scenes  in 
South  Africa,  gives  us  a  very  remarkable  example 
of  the  disappearing  of  one  of  the  most  significant 
words  from  the  language  of  a  tribe  sinking  ever 
deeper  in  savagery  ;  and  with  the  disappearing  of  the 
word,  of  course,  the  disappearing  as  well  of  the  great 
spiritual  fact  and  truth  whereof  that  word  was  at 
once  the  vehicle  and  the  guardian.  The  Bechuanas, 
a  Caffre  tribe,  employed  formerly  the  word  *  Morimo,' 
to  designate  '  Him  that  is  above,'  or  *  Him  that  is  in 
heaven,'  and  attached  to  the  word  the  notion  of  a 
supreme  Divine-  Being.  This  word,  with  the  spir- 
itual idea  corresponding  to  it,  Moffat  found  to  have 
vanished  from  the  language  of  the  present  generation, 
although  here  and  there  he  could  meet  with  an  old 
man,  scarcely  one  or  two  in  a  thousand,  who  remem- 
bered in  his  youth  to  have  heard  speak  of  *  Morimo  ;  * 
and  this  word,  once  so  deeply  significant,  only  sur- 
vived now  in  the  spells  and  charms  of  the  so-called 
rain-makers  and  sorcerers,  who  misused  it  to  desig- 
nate a  fabulous  ghost,  of  whom  they  told  the  ab- 
surdest  and  most  contradictory  things. 

And  as  there  is  no  such  witness  to  the  degradation 
of  the  savage  as  the  brutal  poverty  of  his  language, 
so  is  there  nothing  that  so  effectually  tends  to  keep 
him  in  the  depths  to  which  he  has  fallen.  You  can- 
not impart  to  any  man  more  than  the  words  which  he 
understands  either  now  contain,  or  can  be  made,  in- 
telligibly to  him,  to  contain.  Language  is  as  truly  on 
one  side  the  limit  and  restraint  of  thought,  as  on  the 


POVERTY   OF   LANGUAGES.  3I 

other  side  that  which  feeds  and  unfolds  thought.  Thus 
it  is  the  ever-repeated  complaint  of  the  missionary, 
that  the  very  terms  are  well-nigh  or  wholly  wanting 
in  the  dialect  of  the  savage  whereby  to  impart  to  him 
heavenly  truths  ;  and  not  these  only  ;  but  that  there 
are  equally  wanting  those  which  should  express  the 
nobler  emotions  of  the  human  heart.  Dobrizhofifer, 
the  Jesuit  missionary,  in  his  curious  History  of  the 
Abipones^  tells  us  that  neither  these  nor  the  Guarinies, 
two  of  the  principal  native  tribes  of  Brazil,  possessed 
any  word  in  the  least  corresponding  to  our  *  thanks.* 
But  what  wonder,  if  the  feeling  of  gratitude  was  en- 
tirely absent  from  their  hearts,  that  they  should  riot 
have  possessed  the  corresponding  word  in  their  vo- 
cabularies ?  Nay,  how  should  they  have  had  it 
there  ?  And  that  in  this  absence  lies  the  true  ex- 
planation is  plain  from  a  fact  which  the  same  writer 
records,  that,  although  inveterate  askers,  they  never 
showed  the  slightest  sense  of  obligation  or  of  grati- 
tude when  they  obtained  what  they  sought ;  never 
saying  more  than,  *  This  will  be  useful  to  me,'  or 
'  This  is  what  I  wanted.'  Dr.  Krapf,  after  laborious 
researches  in  some  widely  extended  dialects  of  East 
Africa,  has  remarked  in  them  the  same  absence  of  any 
words  expressing  the  idea  of  gratitude. 

Nor  is  it  only  in  what  they  have  forfeited  and  lost, 
but  also  in  what  they  have  retained  or  invented,  that 
these  languages  proclaim  their  degradation  and  de- 
basement, and  how  deeply  they  and  those  that  speak 
them  have  fallen.  For  indeed  the  strange  wealth  and 
the  strange  poverty,  I  know  not  which  the  strangest 
and  the  saddest,  of  the  languages  of  savage  tribes, 


32  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

rich  in  words  which  proclaim  their  shame,  poor  in 
those  which  should  attest  the  workings  of  any  nobler 
life  among  them,  not  seldom  absolutely  destitute  of 
these  last,  are  a  mournful  and  ever-recurring  surprise, 
even  to  those  who  were  more  or  less  prepared  to  ex- 
pect nothing  else.  Thus  I  have  read  of  a  tribe  in 
New  Holland,  which  has  no  word  to  signify  God,  but 
has  one  to  designate  a  process  by  which  an  unborn 
child  may  be  destroyed  in  the  bosom  of  its  mother.* 
And  I  have  been  informed  on  the  authority  of  one 
excellently  capable  of  knowing,  an  English  scholar 
long   resident   in  Van   Diemen's  Land,  that   in  the 

*  A  Wesleyan  missionary,  communicating  with  me  from  Fiji,  assures 
me  I  have  here  understated  the  case.  He  says  :  "I  could  write  down 
several  words,  which  express  as  many  different  ways  of  killing  an  un- 
born child."  He  has  at  the  same  time  done  me  the  favor  to  send  me 
dreadful  confirmation  of  all  which  I  have  here  asserted.  It  is  a  list  of 
some  Fiji  words,  with  the  hideous  meanings  which  they  bear,  or  facts 
which  they  imply.  He  has  naturally  confined  himself  to  those  in  one 
domain  of  human  wickedness — that,  namely,  of  cruelty ;  leaving 
another  domain,  which  borders  close  on  this,  and  which,  he  assures  me, 
would  yield  proofs  quite  as  terrible,  altogether  untouched.  It  is  im- 
possible to  imagine  a  record  more  hideous  of  what  the  works  of  the 
arch-murderer  are,  or  one  more  fitted  to  stir  up  missionary  zeal  in  be- 
half of  those  dark  places  of  the  earth  which  are  full  of  the  habitations 
of  cruelty.  A  very  few  specimens  must  sufBce.  The  language  of  Fiji 
has  a  word  for  a  club  which  has  killed  a  man  ;  for  a  dead  body  which  is 
to  be  eaten  ;  for  the  first  of  such  bodies  brought  in  at  the  beginning  of 
a  war ;  for  the  flesh  on  each  side  of  the  backbone.  It  has  a  name  of 
honor  given  to  those  who  have  taken  life;  it  neecl  not  have  been  the 
life  of  an  enemy;  if  only  they  have  shed  blood— it  may  have  been  the 
life  of  a  woman  or  a  child— the  title  has  been  earned.  It  has  a  hid- 
eous word  to  express  the  torturing  and  insulting  of  an  enemy,  as  by 
cutting  off  any  part  of  his  body— his  nose  or  tongue,  for  instance — 
roasting  and  eating  it  before  his  face,  and  taunting  him  the  while  ;  the 
dKpcjTTipidi^eip  of  the  Greeks,  with  the  cannibalism  added.  But  of  this 
enough. 


SAVAGE   VOCABULARIES.  33 

native  language  of  that  island  there  are  four  words  to 
express  the  taking  of  human  life — one  to  express  a 
father's  killing  of  a  son,  another  a  son's  killing  of  a 
father,  with  other  varieties  of  murder  ;  and  that  in  no 
one  of  these  lies  the  slightest  moral  reprobation,  or 
sense  of  the  deep-lying  distinction  between  to  *  kill ' 
and  to  *  murder ; '  while  at  the  same  time,  of  that 
language  so  richly  and  so  fearfully  provided  with  ex- 
pressions for  this  extreme  utterance  of  hate,  he  also 
reports  that  a  word  for  *  love '  is  wanting  in  it  alto- 
gether. Yet  with  all  this,  ever  and  anon  in  the  midst 
of  this  wreck  and  ruin,  there  is  that  in  the  language 
of  the  savage,  some  subtle  distinction,  some  curious 
allusion  to  a  perished  civilization,  now  utterly  unin- 
telligible to  the  speaker ;  or  some  other  note,  which 
proclaims  his  language  to  be  the  remains  of  a  dissi- 
pated inheritance,  the  rags  and  remnants  of  a  robe 
which  was  a  royal  one  once.  The  fragments  of  a 
broken  sceptre  are  in  his  hand,  a  sceptre  wherewith 
once  he  held  dominion  (he,  that  is,  in  his  progeni- 
tors) over  large  kingdoms  of  thought,  which  now 
have  escaped  wholly  from  his  sway.* 

But  while  it  is  thus  with  him,  while  this  is  the 
downward  course  of  all  those  that  have  chosen  the 
downward  path,  while  with  every  impoverishing  and 

*  See  on  this  matter  Tylor,  Early  History  of  Mankind,  pp.  150- 
190;  and,  still  better,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  On  Primeval  Man. 
Among  some  of  the  Papuans  the  faintest  rudiments  of  the  family  sur- 
vive; of  the  tribe  no  trace  whatever;  while  yet  of  these  one  has  lately 
written  : — *  Sie  haben  religiose  Gebrauche  und  Uebungen,  welche,  mit 
einigen  anderen  Erscheinungen  in  ihrem  Leben,  mit  ihrem  jetzigen  Cul- 
turzustande  ganz  unvereinbar  erscheinen,  wenn  man  darin  nicht  die 
Spuren  einer  friiher  hohern  Bildung  erkennen  will.' 
2-^ 


34  INTRODUCJORY  LECTURE. 

debasing  of  personal  and  national  life  there  goes 
hand  in  hand  a  corresponding  impoverishment  and 
debasement  of  language  ;  so  on  the  contrary,  where 
there  is  advance  and  progress,  where  a  divine  idea  is 
in  any  measure  realizing  itself  in  a  people,  where 
they  are  learning  more  accurately  to  define  and  dis- 
tinguish, more  truly  to  know,  where  they  are  ruling, 
as  men  ought  to  rule,  over  nature,  and  compelling 
her  to  give  up  her  secrets  to  them,  where  new 
thoughts  are  rising  up  over  the  horizon  of  a  nation's 
mind,  new  feelings  are  stirring  at  a  nation's  heart, 
new  facts  coming  within  the  sphere  of  its  knowledge, 
there  will  language  be  growing  and  advancing  too. 
It  cannot  lag  behind  ;  for  man  feels  that  nothing  is 
properly  his  own,  that  he  has  not  secured  any  new 
thought,  or  entered  upon  any  new  spiritual  inheri- 
tance, till  he  has  fixed  it  in  language,  till  he  can  con- 
template it,  not  as  himself,  but  as  his  word  ;  he  is 
conscious  that  he  must  express  truth,  if  he  is  to  pre- 
serve it,  and  still  more  if  he  would  propagate  it 
among  others.  '*  Names,"  as  it  has  been  excellently 
said,  "  are  impressions  of  sense,  and  as  such  take 
the  strongest  hold  upon  the  mind,  and  of  all  other 
impressions  can  be  most  easily  recalled  and  retained 
in  view.  They  therefore  serve  to  give  a  point  of  at- 
tachment to  all  the  more  volatile  objects  of  thought 
and  feeling.  Impressions  that  when  past  might  be 
dissipated  for  ever,  are  by  their  connection  with  lan- 
guage always  within  reach.  Thoughts,  of  themselves, 
are  perpetually  slipping  out  of  the  field  of  immediate 
mental  vision  ;  but  the  name  abides  with  us,  and  the 
utterance  of  it  restores  them  in  a  moment." 


EXACT  TERMINOLOGY.  35 

Men  sometimes  complain  of  the  number  of  new 
theological  terms  which  the  great  controversies  in 
which  the  Church  from  time  to  time  has  been  engaged 
have  left  behind  them.  But  this  could  not  have  been 
otherwise,  unless  the  gains  through  those  controver- 
sies made  were  presently  to  be  lost  again  ;  for,  as  has 
lately  been  well  said  :  **  The  success  and  enduring 
influence  of  any  systematic  construction  of  truth,  be 
it  secular  or  sacred,  depends  as  much  upon  an  exact 
terminology,  as  upon  close  and  deep  thinking  itself. 
Indeed,  unless  the  results  to  which  the  human  mind 
arrives  are  plainly  stated,  and  firmly  fixed  in  an  ex- 
act phraseology,  its  thinking  is  to  very  little  purpose 
in  the  end.  '  Terms,'  says  Whewell,  '  record  dis- 
coveries.' That  which  was  seen,  it  may  be  with 
crystal  clearness,  and  in  bold  outline,  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  an  individual  thinker,  may  fail  to  be- 
come the  property  and  possession  of  mankind  at 
large,  because  it  is  not  transferred  from  the  individual 
to  the  general  mind,  by  means  of  a  precise  phraseol- 
ogy and  a  rigorous  terminology.  Nothing  is  in  its 
own  nature  more  fugacious  and  shifting  than  thought ; 
and  particularly  thoughts  upon  the  mysteries  of 
Christianity.  A  conception  that  is  plain  and  accur- 
ate in  the  understanding  of  the  first  man  becomes 
obscure  and  false  in  that  of  the  second,  because  it 
was  not  grasped  and  firmly  held  in  the  form  and  pro- 
portions with  which  it  first  came  up,  and  then  handed 
over  to  other  minds,  a  fixed  and  scientific  quantity.""' 

*  Shedd,  History  of  Christian  Doctrine^  vol.  i,  p.  362  ;  compare 
Guesses  at  Truth ^  1866,  P..217  ;  and  Gerber,  Sprache  als  Kunst^  voL 
i  p.  145. 


36  INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE. 

And  on  the  necessity  of  names  at  once  for  the  preser- 
vation and  the  propagation  of  truth  it  has  been  justly- 
observed  :  **  Hardly  any  original  thoughts  on  mental 
or  social  subjects  ever  make  their  way  among  man- 
kind, or  assume  their  proper  importance  in  the  minds 
even  of  their  inventors,  until  aptly  selected  words  or 
phrases  have  as  it  were  nailed  them  down  and  held 
them  fast."  *  And  this  holds  good  alike  of  the. false 
and  of  the  true.  I  think  we  may  observe  very  often 
the  way  in  which  controversies,  after  long  eddying 
backward  and  forward,  hither  and  thither,  concentrate 
themselves  at  last  in  some  single  word  which  is 
felt  to  contain  all  that  the  one  party  would  affirm  and 
the  other  would  deny.  After  a  desultory  raging  of 
the  battle  in  many  directions,  *'  the  high  places  of  the 
field,"  the  critical  position,  on  the  maintaining  of 
which  everything  turns,  is  discovered  at  last.  Thus 
the  whole  controversy  of  the  Catholic  Church  with 
the  Arians  finally  gathers  itself  up  in  a  single  word, 
•  homoousion  ;  '  that  with  the  Nestorians  in  another, 
*theotokos.*  One  might  heboid  to  affirm  that  the 
entire  sect  of  Buddhism  is  in  the  '  Nirvana; '  for  take 
away  the  word,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  keystone  to  the  whole  arch  is  gone.  So  too  when 
the  medieval  Church  allowed  and  then  adopted  the 
word  *  transubstantiation  '  (and  we  know  the  exact 
date  of  this),  it  committed  itself  to  a  doctrine  from 
which  henceforward  it  was  impossible  to  recede. 
The  floating  error  had  become  a  fixed  one,  and  exer- 
cised a  far  mightier  influence  on  the  minds  of  all  who 
received  it,  than  except  for  this  it  would  have  ever 

*  Mill,  System  of  Logic^  vol.  ii.  p.  291. 


COMPREHENSIVE  TERMS.  37 

done.  It  is  sometimes  not  a  word,  but  a  phrase, 
which  proves  thus  mighty  in  operation.  *  Reforma- 
tion in  the  head  and  in  the  members '  was  the  watch- 
word, for  more  than  a  century  before  an  actual  Re- 
formation came,  of  all  who  were  conscious  of  the 
deeper  needs  of  the  Church.  What  intelligent  ac- 
quaintance with  Darwin's  speculations  would  the 
world  in  general  have  made,  except  for  two  or  three 
happy  and  comprehensive  terms,  as  *  the  struggle  for 
existence,'  '  the  survival  of  the  fittest,'  *  the  process 
of  natural  selection  ?  '  Multitudes  who  else  would 
have  known  nothing  about  Comte's  system,  know 
something  about  it  when  they  know  that  he  called  it 
'the  positive  philosophy.' 

We  have  been  tempted  to  depart  a  little,  though  a 
very  little,  from  the  subject  immediately  before  us. 
What  was  just  now  said  of  the  manner  in  which  lan- 
guage enriches  itself  does  not  contradict  a  prior  as- 
sertion, that  man  starts  with  language  as  God's  per- 
fect gift,  which  he  only  impairs  and  forfeits  by  sloth 
and  sin,  according  to  the  same  law  which  holds  good 
in  respect  of  each  other  of  the  gifts  of  heaven.  For 
it  was  not  meant,  as  indeed  was  then  observed,  that 
men  would  possess  words  to  set  forth  feelings  which 
were  not  yet  stirring  in  them,  combinations  which 
they  had  not  yet  made,  objects  which  they  had  not 
yet  seen,  relations  of  which  they  were  not  yet  con- 
scious ;  but  that  up  to  his  needs  (those  needs  in- 
cluding not  merely  his  animal  wants,  but  all  his  higher 
spiritual  cravings),  he  would  find  utterance  freely. 
The  great  logical,  or  grammatical,  framework  of  lan- 
guage (for  grammar  is  the  logic  of  speech,  even  as 


38  INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE. 

logic  is  the  grammar  of  reason),  he  would  possess,  he 
knew  not  how  ;  and  certainly  not  as  the  final  result 
of  gradual  acquisitions,  and  of  reflection  setting  these 
in  order,  and  drawing  general  rules  from  them  ;  but 
as  that  rather  which  alone  had  made  those  acquisi- 
tions possible  ;  as  that  according  to  which  he  uncon- 
sciously worked,  filled  in  this  framework  by  degrees 
with  these  later  acquisitions  of  thought,  feeling,  and 
experience,  as  one  by  one  they  arrayed  themselves 
in  the  garment  and  vesture  of  words. 

Here  then  is  the  explanation  of  the  fact  that  lan- 
guage should  be  thus  instructive  for  us,  that  it  should 
yield  us  so  much,  when  we  come  to  analyze  and  probe 
it ;  and  yield  us  the  more,  the  more  deeply  and  accu- 
rately we  do  so.  It  is  full  of  instruction,  because  it 
is  the  embodiment,  the  incarnation,  if  I  may  so  speak, 
of  the  feelings  and  thoughts  and  experiences  of  a  na- 
tion, yea,  often  of  many  nations,  and  of  all  which 
through  long  centuries  they  have  attained  to  and  won. 
It  stands  Hke  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  to  mark  how 
far  the  moral  and  intellectual  conquests  of  mankind 
have  advanced,  only  not  like  those  pillars,  fixed  and 
immovable,  but  ever  itself  advancing  with  the  pro- 
gressing of  these.  The  mighty  moral  instincts  which 
have  been  working  in  the  popular  mind  have  found 
therein  their  unconscious  voice  ;  and  the  single  king- 
lier  spirits  that  have  looked  deeper  into  the  heart  of 
things  have  oftentimes  gathered  up  all  they  have  seen 
into  some  one  word,  which  they  have  launched  upon 
the  world,  and  with  which  they  have  enriched  it  for- 
ever— making  in  that  new  word  a  new  region  of 
thought  to  be  henceforward  in  some  sort  the  common 


WORDS   THE  GUARDIANS   OF  THOUGHTS.         39 

heritage  of  all.  Language  is  the  amber  in  which  a 
thousand  precious  and  subtle  thoughts- have  been 
safely  embedded  and  preserved.  It  has  arrested  ten 
thousand  lightning  flashes  of  genius,  which,  unless 
thus  fixed  and  arrested,  might  have  been  as  bright, 
but  would  have  also  been  as  quickly  passing  and  per- 
ishing, as  the  lightning.  **  Words  convey  the  mental 
treasures  of  one  period  to  the  generations  that  follow ; 
and  laden  with  this,  their  precious  freight,  they  sail 
safely  across  gulfs  of  time  in  which  empires  have  suf- 
fered shipwreck,  and  the  languages  of  common  life 
have  sunk  into  oblivion."  And  for  all  these  reasons 
far  more  and  mightier  in  every  way  is  a  language 
than  any  one  of  the  works  which  may  have  been  com- 
posed in  it.  For  that  work,  great  as  it  may  be,  at 
best  embodies  what  was  in  the  heart  and  mind  of  a 
single  man,  but  this  of  a  nation.  The  Iliad  is  great, 
yet  not  so  great  in  strength  or  power  or  beauty  as  the 
Greek  language.*  Paradise  Lost  is  a  noble  posses- 
sion for  a  people  to  have  inherited,  but  the  English 
tongue  is  a  nobler  heritage  yet.f 

And  imperfectly  as  we  may  apprehend  all  this, 
there  is  an  obscure  sense,  or  instinct  I  might  call  it, 
in  every  one  of  us,  of  this  truth.     We  all,  whether  we 


*  On  the  Greek  language  and  its  merits,  as  compared  with  the  other 
Indo-Germanic  languages,  see  Curtius,  History  of  Greece^  English 
translation,  vol.  i.  pp.  18-28. 

f  Gerber  {Sprache  als  Kunst,  vol.  i.  p.  274)  :  Es  ist  ein  bedeutender 
Fortschritt  in  der  Erkenntniss  des  Menschen  dass  man  jetzt  Sprachen 
lernt  nicht  bloss,  urn  sich  den  Gedankeninhalt,  den  sie  offenbaren, 
anzueignen,  sondern  zugleich  um  sie  selbst  als  herrliche,  architektonische 
Geisteswerke  kennen  zu  lernen,  und  sich  an  ihrer  Kunstschonheit  zu 
erfreuen. 


40  INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE. 

have  given  a  distinct  account  of  the  matter  to  our- 
selves or  not,  believe  that  words  which  we  use  are 
not  arbitrary  and  capricious  signs,  affixed  at  random 
^o  the  things  which  they  designate,  for  which  any 
other  might  have  been  substituted  as  well,  but  that 
they  stand  in  a  real  relation  to  these.  And  this  sense 
of  the  significance  of  names,  that  they  are,  or  ought 
to  be, — that  in  a  world  of  absolute  truth  they  ever 
would  be, — the  expression  of  the  innermost  character 
and  qualities  of  the  things  or  persons  that  bear  them, 
speaks  out  in  various  ways.  It  is  reported  of  Boiardo, 
author  of  a  poem  without  which  we  should  probably 
have  never  seen  the  Orlando  Furioso  of  Ariosto,  that 
he  was  out  hunting,  when  the  name  Rodomonte  pre- 
sented itself  to  him  as  exactly  fitting  a  foremost 
person  of  the  epic  he  was  composing  ;  and  that  in- 
stantly returning  home,  he  caused  all  the  joy-bells  of 
the  village  to  be  rung,  to  celebrate  the  happy  inven- 
tion. This  story  may  remind  us  of  another  which  is 
told  of  the  greatest  French  novelist  of  modern  times. 
A  friend  of  Balzac's,  who  has  written  some  Recollec- 
tions of  him,  tells  us  that  he  would  sometimes  wander 
for  days  through  the  streets  of  Paris,  studying  the 
names  over  the  shops,  as  being  sure  that  there  was  a 
name  more  appropriate  than  any  other  to  some  char- 
acter which  he  had  conceived,  and  hoping  to  light  on 
it  there. 

Jfou  must  all  have  remarked  the  amusement  and 
interest  which  children  find  in  any  notable  agreement 
between  a  name  and  the  person  who  owns  that  name 
— or,  which  naturally  takes  a  still  stronger  hold  upon 
them,   in  any   manifest   contradiction   between   the 


AGREEMENT  OF  NAMES   AND   THINGS.  41 

name  and  the  name-bearer  ;  as,  for  instance,  if  Mr. 
Strongitharm  is  a  weakling,  or  Mr.  Black  an  albino  : 
the  former  striking  from  a  sense  of  fitness,  the  latter 
from  one  of  incongruity.  Nor  is  this  a  mere  childish 
entertainment.  It  continues  with  us  through  life ; 
and  that  its  roots  lie  deep  is  attested  by  the  earnest 
use  which  is  often  made,  and  that  at  the  most  earnest 
moments  of  men's  lives,  of  such  agreements  or  disa- 
greements as  these.  Such  use  is  not  unfrequent  in 
Scripture,  though  it  is  seldon  possible  to  reproduce  it 
in  English,  as  for  instance  in  the  comment  of  Abigail 
on  her  husband  Nabal's  name  :  *'  As  his  name  is,  so  is 
he  ;  Nabal  is  his  name,  and  folly  is  with  him."  And 
again,  **  Call  me  not  Naomi,"  exclaims  the  desolate 
widow — **  call  me  not  Naomi  [or  pleasantness  ;]  call 
me  Marah  [or  bitterness']^  for  the  Almighty  hath 
dealt  very  bitterly  with  me."  She  cannot  bear  that 
the  name  she  bears  should  so  strangely  contradict  the 
thing  she  is.  Shakespeare,  in  like  manner,  reveals 
his  own  profound  knowledge  of  the  human  heart, 
when  he  makes  old  John  of  Gaunt,  worn  with  long 
sickness,  and  now  ready  to  depart,  play  with  his 
name,  and  dwell  upon  the  consent  between  it  and  his 
condition  ;  so  that  when  his  royal  nephew  asks  him, 
**  How  is  it  with  aged  Gaunt  ?  "  he  answers, 

"  Oh,  how  that  name  befits  my  composition, 
Old  Gaunt  indeed,  and  gaunt  in  being  old — 
Gaunt  am  I  for  tlie  grave,  gaunt  as  the  grave — "* 

*  Ajax,  or  AJfas,  in  the  play  of  Sophocles,  which  bears  his  name,  does 
the  same  with  the  at  a?  which  lies  in  that  name  (422,  423) ;  just  as  m 
the  Bacchce  of  Euripides,  not  Pentheus  himself,  but  others  for  him,  in- 
dicate the  prophecy  of  a  mighty  TreV^oi;  or  grief,  which  is  shut  up  in  his 


42  INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE. 

with  much  more  in  the  same  fashion  ;  while  it  is  into 
the  mouth  of  the  slight  and  frivolous  king  that 
Shakespeare  puts  the  exclamation  of  wonder, 

"  Can  sick  men  play  so  nicely  with  their  names  ?  " 

Thus  too,  if  one  be  engaged  in  a  controversy  or 
quarrel,  and  his  name  import  something  good,  an 
adversary  will  lay  hold  of  the  name,  will  seek  to 
bring  out  a  real  contradiction  between  it  and  its 
bearer,  so  that  he  shall  appear  as  one  presenting  him- 
self under  false  colors,  affecting  a  merit  which  he 
does  not  really  possess.  Examples  of  this  are  in- 
numerable. For  instance,  there  was  one  Vigilantius 
in  the  early  Church  ; — his  name  might  be  interpreted 
*  The  Watchful.'  He  was  engaged  in  a  controversy 
with  St.  Jerome,  about  certain  vigils ;  which  he 
thought  perilous  to  Christian  morality,  but  of  which 
Jerome  was  a  very  eager  promoter ;  who  instantly 
gave  a  turn  to  his  name,  and  proclaimed  that  he,  the 
enemy  of  these  watches,  the  friend  of  slumber  and 
sloth,  should  have  been  not  Vigilantius,  or  The 
Watcher,  but  *  Dormitantius,'  or  The  Sleeper,  rather. 
Dante  declares  Assisi,  the  birthplace  of  S.  Francis, 
to  have  been  ill-named,  for  it  was  not  the  kindled — 
he  spells  the  name  Ascesi,  to  help  out  his  play  on 
words — but  the  kindler.*  Felix,  Bishop  of  Urgel,  a 
chief  champion  of  the  Adoptianist  heresy,  is  con- 
stantly 'Infelix*  in  the  writings  of  Alcuin.  The 
Spanish  peasantry  during  the  Peninsular  War  would 

name.     A  tragic  writer,  less  known  tlian  Euripides,  does  the  same. 
Uevdfvs,  i<TO(Jiivt]s  <Tvfi<popa5  iirttivviiou 
*  ParadisOy  xi.  53. 


HOSTILE    USE   OF  NAMES.  43 

not  hear  of  Bonaparte,  but  constantly  changed  the 
name  to  *  Malaparte,'  as  designating  better  the  per- 
fidious kidnapper  of  their  king  and  enemy  of  their 
independence.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  Greek  poet 
is  most  true  to  nature,  when  in  his  Prometheus 
Bound  he  makes  Strength  tauntingly  to  remind  Pro- 
metheus, or  The  Prudent,  how  ill  his  name  and  the 
lot  which  he  has  made  for  himself  agree ;  bound 
as  he  is  with  adamantine  chains  to  his  rock,  and 
bound,  as  it  might  seem,  for  ever.  When  Napoleon 
said  of  Count  Lobau,  whose  proper  name  was 
Mouton,  '  Mon  mouton  c'est  un  lion,'  it  was  the 
same  instinct  at  work,  though  working  from  an 
opposite  point.  It  made  itself  felt  no  less  in  the 
bitter  irony  which  gave  to  the  second  of  the  Ptole- 
mies, the  brother-murdering  king,  the  title  of  Phila- 
delphus. 

But  this  hostile  use  of  names,  this  attempt  to  place 
them  and  their  owners  in  the  most  intimate  connec- 
tion, to  make,  so  to  speak,  the  man  answerable  for  his 
name,  we  trace  still  more  frequently  where  the  name 
does  not  thus  need  to  be  reversed  ;  but  may  be  made 
as  it  now  is,  or  with  very  slightest  change,  to  contain 
a  confession  of  the  ignorance,  worthlessness,  or  futil- 
ity of  the  bearer.  If  it  impHes,  or  can  be  made  to 
imply,  anything  bad,  it  is  instantly  laid  hold  of  as  ex- 
pressing the  very  truth  about  him.  You  know  the 
story  of  Helen  of  Greece,  whom  in  two  of  his  **  mighty 
lines "  Marlowe's  Faust  so  magnificently  apostro- 
phizes : 

**  Is  this  the  face  that  launched  a  thousand  ships, 
And  burned  the  topless  towers  of  Ilium  ?  " 


44  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

It  IS  no  frigid  conceit  of  the  Greek  poet,  when  one 
passionately  denouncing  the  ruin  which  she  wrought, 
finds  that  ruin  couched  and  foreannounced  in  her 
name  ;  *  as  in  English  it  rnight  be,  and  has  been,  re- 
produced— 

**  Hell  in  her  name,  and  heaven  in  her  looks." 

Pope  Hildebrand  in  one  of  our  Homilies  is  styled 
'  Brand  of  Hell,'  as  setting  the  world  in  a  blaze  ; 
*  Hollenbrand '  constantly  in  German  ;  Sanders,  the 
foul-mouthed  libeller  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  is  with 
more  of  justice  by  old  Fuller  styled  *  Slanders  rather.' 
Tott  and  Teuffel  were  two  officers  of  high  rank  in 
the  army  which  Gustavus  Adolphus  brought  into 
Germany.  You  can  easily  imagine  how  soon  by 
those  of  the  other  side  it  was  said  that  he  had  brought 
'death'  and  *heli'  in  his  train.  There  were  two 
not  inconsiderable  persons  in  our  Civil  Wars,  Vane 
(not  the  *'  young  Vane  "  of  Milton's  and  Wordsworth's 
sonnets),  and  Sterry  ;  and  one  of  these,  Sterry,  was 
chaplain  to  the  other.  Baxter,  having  occasion  to 
mention  them  in  his  profoundly  instructive  Narrative 
of  his  Life  and  Times,  and  liking  neither,  cannot 
forbear  to  observe,  that  **  vanity  and  sterility  were 
never  more  suitably  joined  together  ;  "  and  speaks  in 
another  place  of  "  the  vanity  of  Vane,  and  the  sterility 
of  Sterry."  This  last,  let  me  observe,  is  an  eminent- 
ly unjust  charge,  as  Baxter  himself  in  a  later  volume 
has  very  handsomely  acknowledged. f 

*  "BXiva%  \—k\iva.o%\,  kKav^poq,  eA^TrroAjs,  /Eschylus,  Agamemnon^ 
636. 

\  A  few  more  examples,  in  a  note,  of  this  contumely  of  names. 
Antiochus  Epiplianes,  or  *  the  Illustrious,*  is  for  the  Jews,  whom  he  so 


PROPHECY   IN   NAMES.  45 

Where,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  desired  to  do  a 
man  honor,  how  gladly,  in  like  manner,  is  his  name 
seized  on,  if  it  in  any  way  bears  an  honorable  signifi- 
cance, or  is  capable  of  an  honorable  interpretation- 
men  finding  in  that  name  a  presage  and  prophecy  of 
that  which  was  actually  in  its  bearer.  A  multitude 
of  examples,  many  of  them  very  beautiful,  might  be 
brought  together  in  this  kind.      How   often,  for  in- 

madly  attempted  to  hellenize,  Antiochus  Epimanes,  or  *  the  Insane.' 
Cicero,  denouncing  Verres,  the  infamous  praetor  of  Sicily,  is  too  skilful 
a  master  of  the  passions  to  allow  the  name  of  the  arch-criminal  to  es- 
cape him.  He  was  indeed  Verres,  for  he  swept  the  province  ;  he  was 
a  sweep-net  for  it  (everriculum  in  provincia)  ;  and  then  presently,  giv- 
ing altogether  another  turn  to  his  name.  Others,  he  says,  might  be 
partial  to  '  jus  verrinum '  (which  might  mean  either  Verrine  law  or 
boar-sauce),  but  not  he.  Tiberius  Claudius  Nero,  charged  with  being 
a  drunkard,  becomes  in  the  popular  language  *  Biberius  Caldius  Mero.' 
The  controversies  of  the  Church  with  heretics  yield  only  too  abundant 
a  supply,  and  that  upon  both  sides,  of  examples  in  this  kind.  The 
*  royal-hearted  '  Athanasius  is  '  Satanasius '  for  the  Arians  ;  and  some 
of  S.  Cyprian's  adversaries  did  not  shrink  from  so  foul  a  perversion  of 
his  name  as  to  call  him  KoTrpiaz/os,  or  '  the  Dungy,'  But  then,  on  the 
other  hand,  how  often  is  Pelagius  declared  by  the  Church  Fathers  to  be 
a  pelagus,  a  very  ocean  of  wickedness.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  Mani- 
chseans  changed  their  master's  name  from  Manes  to  Manichseus,  that  so 
it  might  not  so  nearly  resemble  the  word  signifying  madness  in  the 
Greek  (devitantes  nomen  insaniae,  Augustine,  De  Hcer.  46)  ;  it  did  not 
thereby  escape.  The  Waldenses,  it  was  declared  by  the  advocates  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  were  justly  so  called  as  dwelling  '  in  valle  densd,' 
in  the  thick  valley  of  darkness  and  ignorance.  Cardinal  Clesel  was 
active  in  setting  forth  the  Roman  Catholic  reaction  in  Bohemia  with 
which  the  Thirty  Years'  War  began.  It  was  a  far-fetched  and  not 
very  happy  piece  of  revenge,  when  they  of  the  other  side  took  pleasure 
in  spelling  his  name  *  CLesel,'  as  much  as  to  say,  He  of  the  150  ass- 
power.  Bcrengar  calls  a  Pope  who  takes  sides  against  him  not  ponti- 
fex,  but  'pompifex.'  Metrophanes,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople, 
being  couuted  to  have  betrayed  the  interests  of  the  Greek  Church,  his 


46  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

Stance,  and  with  what  effect,  the  name  of  Stephen 
the  proto-martyr,  that  name  signifying  in  Greek  *  the 
Crown,'  was  taken  as  a  prophetic  intimation  of  the 
martyr-crown,  which  it  should  be  given  to  him,  the 
first  in  that  noble  army,  to  wear.*  Irenaeus  means 
in  Greek  '  the  Peaceable  ;  '  and  early  Church  writers 
love  to  remark  how  fitly  the  great  bishop  of  Lyons 
bore  this  name,  setting  forward  as  he  so  eminently  did 

spiritual  mother,  at  the  Council  of  Florence,  saw  his  name  changed 
into  '  Metrophonos,'  or  *  the  Matricide.'  Mahomet  is  *  Bafomet,'  from 
bafa,  a  lie,  in  Proven9al.  Shechem',  a  chief  city  of  the  heretical  Sa- 
maritans, becomes  *  Sychar,'  or  city  of  lies  (see  John  iv.  5),  on  the 
lips  of  the  hostile  Jews ;  while  Toulouse,  a  very  seed-plot  of  heretics, 
Albigensian  and  other,  in  the  middle  ages,  is  found  by  Roman  Catliolic 
writers  to  have  prophesied  as  much  by  its  name,  Tolosa=tota  dolosa. 
In  the  same  way  an  adversary  of  Wiclif  traced  in  his  name  an  abridge- 
ment of  '  wicked-belief.'  It  would  be  curious  to  know  how  often  the 
Sorbonne  has  been  likened  to  a  *  Serbonian '  bog  ;  some  *  privilegiura  * 
declared  to  be  not  such  indeed,  but  a  pravilegium  '  rather. 
*  Thus  in  a  sublime  Latin  hymn  by  Adam  of  S.  Victor  ; 

Nomen  habes  Coronati  ; 
Te  tormenta  decet  pati 
Pro  coroiid  glorice. 

Elsewhere  the  same  illustrious  hymnologist  plays  in  like  manner  on  the 
name  of  S.  Vincentius  : 

Qui  vincentis  habet  nomen 
Ex  re  probat  dignum  omen 

Sui  fore  nominis ; 
Vincens  terra,  vincens  mari 
Quidquid  potest  irrogari 
Poenx  vel  formidinis. 

In  the  bull  for  the  canonization  of  Sta.  Clara,  the  Pope  does  not  dls- 
dain  a  similar  play  upon  her  name  ;  Clara  claris  prceclara  merit  is,  mag- 
nse  in  ca^lo  claritate  glorice,  ac  in  terra  miraculorum  sublimium,  clare 
claret.  On  these  '  prophetic  '  names  in  the  heathen  world  see  Pott, 
Wurzel-  VVorterbuchf  vol.  ii.  part  2,  p.  522. 


PLAYFUL   USE  OF  NAMES.  4/ 

the  peace  of  the  Church,  resolved  as  he  was,  so  far 
as  in  him  lay,  to  preserve  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  bond  of  peace.  "^  The  Dominicans  were  well 
pleased  when  their  name  was  resolved  into  *  Domini 
canes ' — the  Lord's  watch-dogs  ;  who,  as  such,  al- 
lowed no  heresy  to  appear  without  at  once  giving  the 
alarm,  and  seeking  to  chase  it  away.  When  Ben 
Jonson  praises  Shakespeare's  well-filed  lines — 

"  In  each  of  which  he  seems  to  shake  a  lance^ 
As  brandished  in  the  eyes  of  ignorance  " — 

he  is  manifestly  playing  with  his  name.  Fuller,  too, 
our  own  Church  historian,  who  played  so  often  upon 
the  names  of  others,  has  a  play  made  upon  his  own 
in  some  commendatory  verses  affixed  to  one  of  his 
books : 

**  Thy  style  is  clear  and  white ;  thy  very  name 
Speaks  pureness,  and  adds  lustre  to  the  frame." 

He  plays  himself  upon  it  in  an  epigram  which  takes 
the  form  of  a  prayer  : 

*'  My  soul  is  stained  with  a  dusky  color  : 
Let  thy  Son  be  the  Soap ;  I'll  be  the  fuller." 

John  Careless,  whose  letters  are  among  the  most 
beautiful  in  Foxe's  Book  of  Martyrs,  writing  to  Phil- 
pot,  exclaims,  "Oh  good  Master  Philpot,  which  art  a 
principal  pot  indeed,  filled  with  much  precious  liquor, 

*  We  cannot  adduce  S.  Columba  as  another  example  in  the  same 
kind,  seeing  that  this  name  was  not  his  birthright,  but  one  given  to 
him  by  his  scholars  for  the  dove-like  gentleness  of  his  character.  So 
indeed  we  are  told ;  though  it  must  be  owned  that  some  of  the  traits 
recorded  of  him  are  not  columbine  at  all. 


[ 


48  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

— oh,  pot  most  happy  !  of  the  High  Potter  ordained 
to  honor." 

Herein,  in  this  faith  that  men's  names  were  true 
and  would  come  true,  in  this,  and  not  in  any  alto- 
gether unreasoning  superstition,  lay  the  root  of  the 
carefulness  of  the  Romans  that  in  the  enlisting  of  sol- 
diers, names  of  good  omen,  such  as  Valerius,  Salvius, 
Secundus,  should  be  the  first  called.  There  is  a  tale 
in  Roman  history  of  an  expedition  which  was  to  go 
forward  led  by  an  Atrius  Umber,  and  of  the  soldiers 
absolutely  refusing  to  proceed  under  a  commander 
of  so  ill-omened  a  name.  So  strong  is  the  conviction 
of  men  that  names  are  powers.  Nay,  it  must  have 
been  sometimes  thought  that  the  good  name  might 
so  react  on  the  evil  nature  that  it  should  not  remain 
evil  altogether,  but  might  be  induced,  in  part  at 
least,  to  conform  itself  to  the  designation  which  it 
bore.  Here  we  have  an  explanation  of  the  title 
Eumenides,  or  the  Well-minded,  given  to  the  Furies  p 
of  Euxine,  or  the  good  to  strangers,  to  the  inhospi- 
table Black  Sea,  *  stepmother  of  ships,'  as  the  Greek 
poet  called  it ;  the  explanation  too  of  other  transfor- 
mations, of  the  Greek  Egesta  transformed  by  the 
Romans  into  '  Segesta,*  that  it  might  not  suggest 
'  egestas  '  or  penury ;  of  Epidamnus,  which,  seem- 
ing too  suggestive  of  *  damnum,'  was  changed 
into  •  Dyrrachium  ;  '  of  Malcventum  into  *  Bene- 
ventum  ; '  of  Cape  Tormcntoso,  or  Stormy  Cape, 
changed  into  *  Cape  of  Good  Hope  ; '  of  the  dead 
spoken  of  in  Greek  as  in  Latin  simply  as  *  the 
greater  number  ; '  of  the  slain  in  battle  designated 
in  German  as   *  those   who  remain ; '   of  eyAoyJa,  or 


SCRIPTURE  NAMES.  49 

*the  blessing,*  a  name  given  in  modern    Greek   to 
the  small-pox ! 

Let  me  observe,  before  leaving  this  subject,  that 
not  in  one  passage  only,  but  in  passages  innumerable, 
Scripture  sets  its  seal  to  this  significance  of  names,  to 
the  fact  that  the  seeking  and  the  finding  of  this  sig- 
nificance is  not  a  mere  play  upon  the  surface  of 
things ;  it  everywhere  recognizes  the  inner  band, 
which  ought  to  connect,  and  in  a  world  of  truth 
would  connect,  together  the  name  and  the  person  or 
thing  bearing  the  name.  Scripture  sets  its  seal  to 
this  by  the  weight  and  solemnity  which  it  everywhere 
attaches  to  the  imposing  of  names ;  this  in  many  in- 
stances not  being  left  to  hazard,  but  assumed  by  God 
as  his  own  peculiar  care.  '  Thou  shalt  call  his  name 
Jesus  '  (Matt.  i.  21  ;  Luke  i.  31)  is  of  course  the  most 
illustrious  instance  of  all ;  but  there  are  a  multitude 
of  other  cases  in  point ;  names  given  by  God,  as  that 
of  John  to  the  Baptist ;  or  changed  by  Him,  as 
Abram's  to  Abraham,  Sarai's  to  Sarah,  Hoshea's  to 
Joshua ;  or  new  names  added  by  Him  to  the  old, 
when  by  some  mighty  act  of  faith  the  man  had  been 
lifted  out  of  his  old  life  into  a  new;  as  Israel  added 
to  Jacob,  and  Peter  to  Simon,  and  Boanerges  or  sons 
of  thunder  to  the  two  sons  of  Zebedee. 

But  we  must  draw  to  a  close.  Enough  has  been 
said  to  attest  and  to  justify  the  widespread  faith  of 
men  that  names  are  significant,  and  that  things  and 
persons  correspond,  or  ought  to  correspond,  to  them. 
You  will  not,  then,  find  it  a  laborious  task  to  per- 
suade your  pupils  to  admit  as  much.  They  are  pre- 
pared to  accept,  they  will  be  prompt  to  believe  it. 
3 


50  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

And  great  indeed  will  be  our  gains,  their  gains  and 
ours, — for  teacher  and  taught  will  for  the  most  part 
enrich  themselves  together, — if,  having  these  treas- 
ures of  wisdom  and  knowledge  lying  round  about  us, 
so  far  more  precious  than  mines  of  Californian  gold, 
we  determine  that  we  will  make  what  portion  of  them 
we  can  our  own,  that  we  will  ask  the  words  which  we 
use  to  give  an  account  of  themselves,  to  say  whence 
they  are,  and  whither  they  tend.  Then  shall  we 
often  rub  off  the  dust  and  rust  from  what  seemed  to 
us  but  a  common  token,  which  as  such  we  had  taken 
and  given  a  thousand  times ;  but  which  now  we  shall 
perceive  to  be  a  precious  coin  bearing  the  "image 
and  superscription  "  of  the  great  King  :  then  shall  we 
often  stand  in  surprise  and  in  something  of  shame, 
while  we  behold  the  great  spiritual  realities  which 
underlie  our  common  speech,  the  marvellous  truths 
which  we  have  been  witnessing /(C'r  in  our  words,  but, 
it  may  be  witnessing  against  in  our  lives.  And  as 
you  will  not  find,  for  so  I  venture  to  promise,  that 
this  study  of  words  will  be  a  dull  one  when  you 
undertake  it  yourselves,  as  little  need  you  fear  that  it 
will  prove  dull  and  unattractive,  when  you  seek  to 
make  your  own  gains  herein  the  gains  also  of  those 
who  may  be  hereafter  committed  to  your  charge. 
Only  try  your  pupils,  and  mark  the  kindling  of  the 
eye,  the  lighting  up  of  the  countenance,  the  revival 
of  the  flagging  attention,  with  which  the  humblest 
lecture  upon  words,  and  on  the  words  especially 
which  they  are  daily  using,  which  are  familiar  to 
them  at  their  play  or  at  their  church,  will  be  wel- 
comed by  them.     There  is  a  sense  of  reality  about 


STUDY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  TONGUE.  5 1 

children  which  makes  them  rejoice  to  discover  that 
there  is  also  a  reality  about  words,  that  they  are  not 
merely  arbitrary  signs,  but  Hving  powers  ;  that  to  re- 
verse the  words  of  one  of  England's  ''  false  prophets," 
they  may  be  the  fool's  counters,  but  are  the  wise 
man's  money  ;  not,  like  the  sands  of  the  sea,  innu- 
merable disconnected  atoms,  but  growing  out  of  roots, 
clustering  in  families,  connecting  and  intertwining 
themselves  with  all  that  men  have  been  doing  and 
thinking  and  feeling  from  the  beginning  of  the  world 
till  now. 

And  it  is  of  course  our  English  tongue,  out  of 
which  mainly  we  should  seek  to  draw  some  of  the  hid 
treasures  which  it  contains,  from  which  we  should 
endeavor  to  remove  the  veil  which  custom  and  famil- 
iarity have  thrown  over  it.  We  cannot  employ  our- 
selves better.  There  is  nothing  that  will  more  help 
than  will  this  to  form  an  English  heart  in  ourselves 
and  in  others.  We  could  scarcely  have  a  single  les- 
son on  the  growth  of  our  English  tongue,  we  could 
scarcely  follow  up  one  of  its  significant  words,  with- 
out having  unawares  a  lesson  in  English  history  as 
well,  without  not  merely  falling  on  some  curious  fact 
illustrative  of  our  national  life,  but  learning  also  how 
the  great  heart  which  is  beating  at  the  centre  of  that 
life  was  gradually  shaped  and  moulded.  We  should 
thus  grow  too  in  our  feeling  of  connection  with  the 
past,  of  gratitude  and  reverence  to  it ;  we  should 
estimate  more  truly,  and  therefore  more  highly,  what 
it  has  done  for  us,  all  that  it  has  bequeathed  us,  all 
that  it  has  made  ready  to  our  hands.  It  was  some- 
thing for  the  children  of  Israel,  when  they  came  into 


52  INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE. 

Canaan,  to  enter  upon  wells  which  they  digged  not, 
and  vineyards  which  they  had  not  planted,  and  houses 
which  they  had  not  built  ;  but  how  much  vaster  a 
boon,  how  much  more  glorious  a  prerogative,  for  any 
one  generation  to  enter  upon  the  inheritance  of  a 
language  which  other  generations  by  their  truth  and 
toil  have  made  already  a  receptacle  of  choicest  trea- 
sures, a  storehouse  of  so  much  unconscious  wisdom, 
a  fit  organ  for  expressing  the  subtlest  distinctions, 
the  tenderest  sentiments,  the  largest  thoughts,  and 
the  loftiest  imaginations,  which  the  heart  of  man 
should  at  any  time  conceive.  And  that  those  who 
have  preceded  us  have  gone  far  to  accomplish  this 
for  us,'  I  shall  rejoice  if  I  am  able  in  any  degree  to 
make  you  feel  in  the  lectures  which  will  follow  the 
present. 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES, 

INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 


EXERCISE  No.  I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

I.  Wisdom  preserved  and  transmitted. 

1.  By  books. 

2.  By  oral  discourse. 

3.  By  words. 

II.  Words  repay  study. 

III.  Results  of  word-study. 

IV.  "  Ignorance  the  mother  of  admiration." 

1.  Falsity. 

2.  Implication. 

3.  Refutation. 

V.  Ignorance  prevents  admiration. 

1 .  In  the  region  of  nature. 

2.  In  the  region  of  art. 

3.  In  the  sphere  of  language. 

VI.  The  traveller  and  student  compared. 
VII.  Why  we  miss  teaching  and  instruction. 
VIII.  Attractiveness  of  the  study  of  words. 

1.  Testimony  of  a  Greek  lexicographer. 

2.  Inference  in  regard  to  our  ''  mother-tongue.* 

3.  Quoted  testimony  of  a  recent  writer. 


54  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

EXERCISE  No.  II. 
LANGUAGE,  FOSSIL  POETRY. 

I.  Language  characterized  as  "  fossil  poetry." 
II.  Explanation  of  the  phrase. 

1.  Stone  contains  the  plant  or  animal. 

2.  Words  hold  thoughts  or  images. 

III.  Aptness  of  the  phrase. 

IV.  The  phrase  extended. 

1 .  Language  is  fossil  poetry. 

2.  "  "       ethics. 

3.  *'  "       history. 
V.  Limitation  of  poetry. 

1.  Not  confined  to  customs. 

2.  "  '^  traditions. 

3.  ''         "         beliefs. 

VI.  Single  words  concentrated  poems. 

1.  This  poetry  founded  on  analogies. 

2.  Its  images  may  grow  trite  or  ordinary. 
Vn.  The  word-coiner  is  a  poet. 

Exatnples — 

1.  He  who  spake  first  of  a  "  dilapidated"  fortune. 

2.  He  who  gave  the  meaning  of  "sincere"  to  the 

Greek  word  "  t tXtrtptKj^j." 

3.  He  who  called  mountains  "  sierras,"  or  "  saws.'* 

EXERCISE  No.  III. 
LANGUAGE,  FOSSIL  ETHICS. 

I.  Words  are  witnesses  for  great  moral  truths. 
Examples — 

1.  Bishop  Butler's  use  of  the  word  *'  pastime." 

2.  Similar  idea  in  the  word  "  diversion." 

3.  Other  words. 

(c.)  "Transport." 
{h)  "Rapture." 
{c.)  "Ravishment.'* 
(^.)  "Ecstasy." 


BLACKBOARD    EXERCISES.  55 

II.  Perversion  of  the  moral  sense  in  words. 
Example — Papal  misuse  of  words. 

1.  A  **  relgious  person,"  a  monk  or  nun. 

2.  A  ''  religious  house,"  one  ordered  by  men. 

3.  "  Religion,"  an  order  of  monkery. 

4.  "  Religious  "  applied  to  self-chosen  services. 


EXERCISE  No.  IV. 
LANGUAGE,  FOSSIL  HISTORY. 

I.  Words  record  social  and  national  revolutions. 
Example  I. — ^^ Frank." 

1 .  Applied  to  German  tribes. 

2.  Signified  "free." 

3.  Became  a  national  name. 

4.  Involved  a  moral  distinction. 

5.  Gave  birth  to 

{a.)  "Franchise." 
{b.)  "  Enfranchisement." 
Example  11.—''  Slave:' 

EXERCISE  No.  V. 

ORIGIN  OF  LANGUAGE— HUMAN  THEORY. 
I.  Two  theories  of  the  origin  of  language. 

1.  Human. 

2.  Divine. 

Statement  of  Human  theory. 

1.  Makes  language  an  invention. 

2.  Develops  it  from  imperfect  beginnings. 

3.  Brings  it  little  by  little  to  perfection. 
Objections  to  Human  theory. 

1 .  Makes  language  an  accident. 

2.  Implies  that  some. are  without  it. 

3.  Contradicted  by  Genesis. 

4.  Inconsistent  with  experience. 


$6  INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE. 

TAe  Urang-  Utang  theory, 

1.  Makes  the  savage  a  living  seed. 

2.  Develops  the  civilized  man  from  it 
The  true  theory. 

1 .  Makes  the  savage  a  withered  leaf. 

2.  Or  a  man  prematurely  aged. 

EXERCISE  No.  VI. 

ORIGIN   OF  LANGUAGE— DIVINE  THEORY. 
I.  True  origin  of  language. 
Divitte  theory. 

1.  God  gave  man  language  as  he  gave  reason. 

2.  It  was  given  because  he  is  a  social  being. 

IL   How  LANGUAGE  WAS  GIVEN. 

1.  Not  with  a  full-formed  vocabulary. 

2.  Not  even  with  names. 

3.  But,  with  the  power  of  naming. 

III.  Testimony  of  Genesis. 

1.  That  Adam  named  at  God's  su<:^cjestion. 

2.  That  speech  is  at  once  divine  and  human. 

IV.  What  may  be  conceded — partial  acquisition. 
V.  Statement  of  the  actual  case. 

1.  Man  had  the  power  to  name. 

2.  Man  could  express  relations. 

3.  These  powers  could  not  remain  dormant. 

4.  They  were  developed  by  the  outer  world. 

5.  Man  makes  his  own  language. 

{a.)  Like  the  bee  its  cell. 
{b.)  Like  the  bird  its  nest. 
VI.  How  the  latent  power  of  speech  evolved  itself. 

1.  Like  a  plant  springing  from  a  root. 

2.  Like  the  building  of  a  house. 

EXERCISE  No.  VII. 

LANGUAGE  OF  SAVAGE  TRIBES. 

I.  What  the  language  of  the  savage  proves. 
I.  That  it  is  the  remnant  of  a  better  past. 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  5/ 

2.  That  degradation  is  stamped  upon  it. 

3.  That  words  have  perished  with  the  loss  of  spiritual 

ideas. 

4.  Also  with  the  habits  of  civilization. 
II.  Testimony  of  Moffat. 

Example — ^^Morimo" 

1.  Caffre  word  for  "  God." 

2 .  Vanishing  from  the  language. 

3.  Survives  as  the  name  of  a  ghost. 

III.  How     DEGRADATION     OF     LANGUAGE     AFFECTS      THE 

SAVAGE. 

1.  Testimony  of  Dobrizhoffer. 

2.  Testimony  of  Dr.  Krapf. 

3.  Testimony  of  Wesleyan  Missionary. 

IV.  Degradation  in  what  the  savage  retains  and 

INVENTS. 

1.  New  Holland  tribe. 

{a.)  No  word  for  "  God." 
{b.)  Word  for  "  abortion." 

2.  Van  Diemen's  Land. 

{a.)  Four  words  for  taking  life. 
{b.)  Killing  and  murder  the  same. 
{c.)  The  word  "  love"  is  lost. 
V.  Remnants  of  royalty  in  savage  language. 


EXERCISE  No.  VIIL 

THE   FUNCTIONS    AND    CONSTRUCTION    OF    LAN- 
GUAGE. 

I.  Language  a  record  of  personal  or   national 

LIFE. 

1.  It  records  impoverishment  and  debasement. 

2.  It  records  advance  and  progress. 
II.  The  functions  of  names. 

1.  They  secure  new  thoughts. 

2.  Attach  volatile  objects  of  thought  and  feeling. 

3.  Assist  in  the  propagation  of  truth. 


58  INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE; 

III.  Advantages  of  exact  terminology. 

1.  Testimony  of  Whewell. 

2.  Controversies  concentrated  in  single  words. 

Examples — 

(^.)  ''  Homoousion." 
(<5.)  '' Theotokos." 
(^.)   '^  Nirvana," 
{d.)  "  Transubstantiation." 
{e.)  "  Reformation." 
(y.)  Darwin's  words. 
{f^.)  Comte's  "  Positive  Philosophy." 

IV.  Man  starts  with  language  as  God's  gift. 

1.  This  gift  is  impaired  by  sin. 

2.  It  does  not  provide  for 

(«.)  Feelings  not  experienced. 

{b.)  Combinations  not  made. 

{c.)  Relations  not  discovered. 

^   V.  The  grammatical  framework  of  language. 

1.  Not  the  result  of  acquisition,  but  necessary  for  it. 

2.  Method  by  which  man  unconsciously  works. 

^      EXERCISE  No.  IX. 

LANGUAGE,  AND  OUR  RELATIONS  TO  IT. 
I.  Why  language  is  full  of  instruction. 

1.  Because  it  is  the  incarnation  of  thought. 

2.  It  marks  the  moral  and  intellectual  conquests  of 

man. 

3.  It  makes  new  thoughts  the  heritage  of  all. 

4.  It  arrests  and  preserves  the  flashes  of  genius. 

5.  It  is  the  ark  which  saves  thought  from  destruction. 
II.  Language  is  greater  than  literature. 

1.  Literature  embodies  the  minds  of  single  men. 

2.  Language  embodies  the  mind  of  a  nation. 

Examples — 

(<z.)  Greek  language  greater  than  the  Iliad, 
{p.)  English  language  greater  than  Paradise 
Lost, 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  59 

III.  Our  relations  to  language. 

1.  We  apprehend  its  truth. 

2.  We  beheve  that  words  are  not  arbitrary  signs. 

3.  Anecdotes  of  Boiardo  and  Balzac. 

4.  Children  are  amused  by  agreements  and  contra- 

dictions. 
(a.)  Fitness y  if  Mr.  Strongitharm  is  a  weakling. 
{b^  Incongruity ,  if  Mr.  Black  is  an  albino. 

5.  Older  people  show  the  same  interest. 

{a.)  "Nabal." 

{b.)  "  Naomi." 

(<:.)  Shakespeare's  "  John  of  Gaunt." 

{d.)  Ajax. 

{e.)  Pentheus. 

EXERCISE  No.  X. 

THE  ABUSE  OF  NAMES. 
I.  Hostile  use  of  names. 

1.  Contradictions  between  names  and  their  bearers. 

(a.)  "  Dormitantius." 
{b.)  "Ascesi." 
{c.)  "Infelix." 
{d.)  "Malaparte." 
(e.)   "Prometheus." 
(/.)  "  Mouton." 
{g.)  "  Philadelphus." 

2.  Hostile  use  of  names  with  little  change. 

{a)  '' Helen  of  Greece." 
{b.)  ''  Pope  Hildebrand." 
(<:.)  "  Sanders." 
{d)  "Vane." 
{e.)  "Sterry." 
II.  Contumely  of  names. 

1.  "  Antiochus  Epimanes." 

2.  "  Verres." 


Co 


INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE. 


^• 

"  Satanasius." 

5. 

"St.  Cyprian." 

6. 

"  ManichiEus." 

7- 

"  Pelagus." 

8. 

"  Waldenses." 

9- 

"  CLesel." 

10. 

"  Pompifex." 

II. 

"  Metrophonus." 

12. 

"  Bafomet." 

13. 

"  Sychar." 

14. 

"  Tolosa." 

15. 

"  Wiclif." 

16. 

"  Sorbonne." 

17. 

"  Pravilegium." 

EXERCISE  No.  XI. 

PROPHECY  AND  SIGNIFICANCE  IN  NAMES. 

I.  Prophecy  in  names. 
I.  "Stephen." 


"Sta.  Clara." 
"  Irenaeus." 


4.  "  S.  Columba." 

5.  "  The  Dominicans." 

6.  "  Shakespeare." 

7.  "Fuller." 

8.  "  Philpot." 

II.  Significance  in  names 

1.  Roman  names—"  Valerius,"  "  Salvius,"  eta 

2.  "  Eumenidcs." 

3.  "Euxine." 

4.  "  Segesta." 

5.  "  Dyrrachium." 

6.  "  Beneventum." 

7.  "  Cape  of  Good  Hope." 

8.  "  The  greater  number." 

9.  "  Those  who  remain." 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  6l 

10.  cV^-oy/a,  "  The  blessing." 

11.  Scripture  names. 

{a.)  '^  Jesus." 
(d.)  ''John." 
{c.)  "Abraham,"  etc. 


EXERCISE  No.  XII 

ETYMOLOGY  IN  SCHOOLS. 

I.  Widespread  faith  in  the  significance  of  words. 
II.  Gains  of  teacher  and  taught  in  the  study  of 

WORDS. 

III.  Words,  like  coins,  bear  the  image  of  the  great 

KING. 

IV.  Great  spiritual  realities  underlie  words. 
V.  Word-study  not  dull  or  unattractive. 

VI.  Pupil's  interest  in  the  study  of  words. 
VII.  Pleasure  of  children  in  the  reality  of  words. 
VIII.  Words  are  not  disconnected  atoms. 

1.  They  grow  out  of  roots. 

2.  They  cluster  in  families. 

3.  Are  connected  with  action,  feeling,  thought. 
IX.  Study  of  the  English  tongue. 

1.  Forms  in  us  an  English  heart. 

2.  Teaches  us  lessons  in  English  history. 

3.  Connects  us  properly  with  the  past. 

4.  Helps  us  to  estimate  what  it  has  done  for  us. 
X.  Our  inheritance  in  language. 

1.  Israelites  inherited 

(a.)  Wells. 
{d.)  Vineyards. 
(c.)  Houses. 

2.  We  inherit  a  ready-made  language. 


QUESTIONS. 

INTRODUCTORY    LECTURE. 


What  do  the  majority  of  people  acknowledge  in  reference  to 
books  ? 

What  different  view  is  urged  in  these  lectures  ? 

What  classes  of  words  repay  study  ? 

With  what  is  the  discovery  of  the  fact  that  words  are  living 
powers  compared  ? 

What  proverb  is  often  quoted  ? 

How  is  it  characterized,  and  what  does  it  imply  ? 

To  what  extent  does  ignorance  prevent  admiration  ? 

In  what  two  regions  is  this  so  ? 

Where  is  it  particularly  true  ? 

How  are  the  careless  student  and  traveller  compared  ? 

Why  does  each  miss  the  teaching  which  lies  about  his  path  ? 

Give  the  passage  quoted  in  this  connection  ? 

What  is  said  about  the  study  upon  which  we  are  entering  ? 

What  testimony  does  the  author  of  a  Greek  lexicon  give  ? 

What  docs  he  declare  to  be  a  labor  of  love  ? 

What  is  the  inference  in  regard  to  our  mother  tongue  ? 

How  has  a  great  writer  borne  witness  to  the  pleasure  and 
profit  of  word-study  ? 

How  has  Emerson  characterized  language  ? 

What  is  the  meaning  of  the  phrase,  **  fossil  poetry  "  ? 

What  is  the  fault  of  the  phrase  ? 

How  may  it  be  varied  ? 

What  do  words  often  embody  ? 

Where  are  we  to  look  for  poetry  ? 

What  does  the  examination  of  single  words  reveal  ? 

What  may  have  been  the  history  of  the  image  which  the 
word  contains  ? 


QUESTIONS.  63 

Who  is  a  poet,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word  ? 

How  is  this  illustrated  in  the  expression,  "  a  '  dilapidated' 
fortune  "  ? 

How  in  the  Greek  word  meaning  "  sincere  ?  " 

How  in  the  word  "  sierras  "  ? 

Give  the  derivation  and  composition  of  "  dilapidated," 
*'  sincere,"  "  truthful,"  "  transparent,"  ^'  sierras,"  ''  saws." 

What  is  the  Greek  word  referred  to  above  ? 

What  witness  do  words  contain  for  moral  truth  ? 

What  testimony  does  Bishop  Butler  compel  the  word  **  pas- 
time "  to  give  ? 

What  might  he  have  added  in  reference  to  the  word  *'  diver- 
sion "  ? 

What  two  inferences  are  drawn  from  these  two  words  ? 

Name  four  other  words  of  similar  import. 

Give  the  derivation  and  composition  of  ''  pastime,"  "  diver- 
sion," "  transport,"  "  rapture,"  "ravishment,"  and  "  ecstasy." 

What  signal  example  is  given  of  the  perversion  of  moral 
truth  in  words  ? 

How  was  the  expression,  "  religious  person,"  used  during  the 
Papal  dominations  in  Europe  ? 

How  the  phrase  "  religious  house  "  ? 

What  did  the  word  "  religion  "  mean  ? 

What  does  the  misuse  of  this  word  show? 

How  was  the  term  "  religious  "  applied  ? 

What  two  views  are  held  by  philologists  in  reference  to  the 
word  *'  religion"  ? 

What  is  the  probable  derivation  of  the  word  ? 

How  does  the  word  ''frank"  prove  that  language  is  fossil 
history  ? 

Who  were  the  Franks  ? 

What  were  their  relations  to  the  Gauls  and  Romans  ?     " 

Give  the  different  stages  in  the  history  of  the  word. 

What  is  said  about  the  use  of  the  words  "frank,"  "fran- 
chise," and  "  enfranchisement"  ? 

Give  the  history  of  the  word  "  slave." 

How  is  the  origin  of  language  to  be  discussed  ? 

How  many  theories  are  there  ? 


64  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

How  does  the  first  of  these  regard  language  ? 

How  does  it  suppose  man  to  have  invented  language  ? 

What  is  the  objection  to  this  theory  ? 

If  language  were  an  accident  of  human  nature,  what  would 
we  encounter  ? 

What  do  facts  prove  ? 

What  more  decisive  objection  to  this  theory  is  presented  ? 

What  is  the  *'  urang-utang"  theory  ? 

Instead  of  a  living  seed,  what  might  the  savage  be  more 
justly  considered  ?  What  mstead  of  the  child  with  the  latent 
capacities  of  manhood  ? 

What  is  the  truer  answer  to  the  inquiry  how  language  arose  ? 

What  must  this  statement  not  be  taken  to  affirm  ? 

How  did  man  begin  his  career  in  the  world  ? 

What  is  the  testimony  of  the  first  three  chapters  of  Genesis  ? 

What  intimation  have  we  here  of  the  origin  of  speech  ? 

What  is  conceded  to  those  who  hold  the  theory  of  progres- 
sive acquisition  ? 

How  should  we  conceive  the  actual  case  most  truly  ? 

How  does  man  make  his  language  ? 

How  did  this  latent  power  first  evolve  itself  ? 

How  may  we  help  ourselves  to  realize  the  process  ? 

How  is  it  likened  to  the  rearing  of  a  house  ? 

If  the  savage  were  the  primitive  man,  what  would  we  find  ? 

What  does  the  inspection  of  their  language  prove  ? 

What  is  stamped  on  their  language  ? 

What  is  the  result  of  letting  go  the  truth,  or  separation  from 
civilization  ? 

What  is  lost  with  the  habits  of  civilization  ? 

What  is  the  testimony  of  Mofiat  ? 

How  did  the  Bcchuanas  formerly  employ  the  word 
"Morimo"? 

What  did  Moffat  find  in  the  case  of  this  word  ? 

How  does  the  word  survive  ? 

What  is  the  effect  of  the  degradation  of  language  ? 

To  what  extent  are  ideas  intelligible  ? 

What  are  the  relations  of  language  and  thought  ? 

What  is  the  repeated  complaint  of  the  missionary  ? 


QUESTIONS.  65 

What  does  Dobrizhoffer  tell  us  ? 

Why  is  this  not  to  be  wondered  at  ? 

What  explanation  is  given  of  the  absence  of  the  word 
*'  thanks  ?  " 

What  does  Dr.  Krapf  testify  ? 

How  else  does  language  proclaim  its  degradation  ? 

What  is  true  of  a  tribe  in  New  Holland  ? 

What  does  a  Wesleyan  missionary  testify  ? 

What  is  the  testimony  of  an  English  scholar  resident  in  Van 
Diemen's  Land  ? 

What  proclaims  the  language  of  the  savage  to  be  a  remnant 
of  something  better  ? 

What  does  he  still  possess  ? 

What  is  the  law  in  reference  to  the  impoverishment  and  de- 
basement of  language  ? 

What  in  reference  to  advance  and  progress  ? 

Why  cannot  language  lag  behind  ? 

How  are  names  defined  and  what  are  their  functions  ? 

What  complaint  is  made  in  reference  to  theological  terms  ? 

How  are  they  defended  ? 

What  is  said  about  the  importance  of  exact  terminology  ? 

What  is  Whewell's  testimony  ?     Expand  the  idea. 

What  is  the  nature  of  thought,  and  how  is  it  saved  from 
obscurity  ? 

What  is  said  about  the  necessity  of  names  for  the  spread  of 
truth  ? 

How  are  controversies  concentrated  ? 

How  is  this  illustrated  by  the  words  "  homoousion,"  "  theo- 
tokos," ''Nirvana"? 

What  is  said  of  the  word  "  transubstantiation  ?  " 

What  phrases  illustrate  the  same  point  ? 

Is  any  prior  assertion  contradicted  by  what  is  said  about  the 
enrichment  of  language  ? 

What  kind  of  words  do  men  not  possess  ? 

How  would  man  possess  the  grammatical  framework  of  lan- 
guage ? 

What  fact  is  here  explained  ? 

Why  is  language  full  of  instruction  ? 


66  INTRODUCTORY   LECTURE. 

What  does  it  make,  and  how  ? 

Of  what  is  language  the  unconscious  voice  ? 

Of  what  is  a  single  word  often  the  embodiment  ? 

With  what  is  language  compared  ? 

Of  what  are  words  the  vehicles  ? 

Why  is  language  greater  than  its  literature  ? 

Illustrate  this. 

How  do  we  apprehend  what  has  been  thus  far  stated  ? 

What  do  we  all  believe  in  reference  to  the  words  we  use  ? 

What  is  said  of  the  sense  of  the  significance  of  names  ? 

Give  instances  of  this. 

How  are  children  interested  in  names  ?     Illustrate. 

Is  this  confined  to  children  ? 

What  proves  that  its  roots  lie  deep  ? 

Give  examples  of  such  use  in  Scripture. 

What  illustration  is  furnished  by  Shakespeare  ?  By  Sopho- 
cles ?     By  Euripides  ? 

How  are  names  used  in  controversy  ? 

Give  examples. 

How  was  the  name  "  Malaparte"  applied  ? 

What  is  said  of  the  author  of  "  Prometheus  Bound"  ?  What 
of  Napoleon  ? 

To  whom  was  the  title  "  Philadelphus  "  applied  ? 

What  use  is  made  of  names  by  slight  change  ?  Illustrate  in 
*'  Helen  of  Greece." 

Give  other  examples  of  names  changed  to  worse. 

Give  examples  of  contumely  of  names. 

What  honorable  use  is  made  of  names  ? 

Give  examples  of  prophecy  in  names. 

How  does  Ben  Jonson  refer  to  Shakespeare's  name  ? 

How  does  Fuller  use  his  own  name  ? 

What  use  is  made  of  Philpot's  name  ? 

What  care  was  exercised  by  the  Romans  in  reference  to 
names  ? 

How  do  men  regard  names  ? 

What  names  are  explained  by  this  view  ? 

What  is  said  of  Scripture  names  ? 

Give  examples  of  significant  Scripture  names. 


QUESTIONS. 


6r 


What  has  been  proved  in  the  foregoing  ?  How  do  pupils 
regard  such  facts  ? 

Upon  what  does  the  gain  of  teacher  and  pupil  depend  ? 

How  are  words  like  old  coins  ? 

What  will  be  the  result  of  their  examination  ? 

What  is  promised  in  reference  to  the  study  of  words  ? 

What  experiment  is  suggested  ? 

How  are  words  described  ? 

What  language  should  be  the  subject  of  our  investigations  ? 
Why? 

What  would  we  learn  at  the  same  time  ? 

What  would  result  from  such  study  ? 

Why  is  our  language  a  more  glorious  inheritance  than 
Canaan  was  to  the  Israelites  ? 


ADDITIONAL  WORDS  FOR  ILLUSTRATION. 

INTRODUCTORY    LECTURE. 

1.  Amazon.  21.  Hyacinth. 

2.  Ammonia.  22.  Illustrious. 

3.  Atlantic.  23.  Jacobin. 

4.  Aurora.  24.  Larboard. 

5.  Bigot.  25.  Left. 

6.  Board.  26.  Midst. 

7.  Bombastic.  27.  Oxide. 

8.  Bull.  28.  Pavilion. 

9.  Cabal.  29.  Plutonian 

10.  Canard.  30-  Sophomore. 

11.  Caterpillar.  31-  Siren. 

12.  Chancellor.  32-  Tell. 

13.  Colossal.  33-  Termagant. 

14.  Diploma.  34-  Testy.     . 

15.  Dollar.  35-  Thimble. 

16.  Easter.  36.  Tulip. 

17.  Equitant.  37.  Vaccinate. 

18.  Finance,  38.  Vandalism. 

19.  Fiscal.  39.  Volcanic. 

20.  Howl.  40.  Zenith. 


LECTURE  II. 

ON  THE    POETRY  IN    WORDS. 

I  SAID  in  my  last  lecture,  or  rather  I  quoted 
another  who  had  said,  that  language  is  fossil 
poetry.  It  is  true  that,  for  us,  very  often  this  poetry 
which  is  bound  up  in  words  has  in  great  part  or 
altogether  disappeared.  We  fail  to  recognize  it, 
partly  from  long  familiarity  with  it,  partly  from  insuf- 
ficient knowledge,  partly,  it  may  be,  from  never  hav- 
ing had  our  attention  called  to  it.  None  have  pointed 
it  out  to  us  ;  we  may  not  ourselves  have  possessed 
the  means  of  detecting  it ;  and  thus  it  has  come  to 
pass  that  we  have  been  in  close  vicinity  to  this  wealth 
which  yet  has  not  been  ours.  Margaret  has  not  been 
for  us  *  the  Pearl,'  nor  Esther  *  the  Star,'  nor  Susanna 
*  the  Lily,'  *  nor  Stephen  *  the  Crown,'  nor  Albert  or 
Albrecht  *  the  All-bright.'  "In  our  ordinary  lan- 
guage," as  Montaigne  has  said,  "there  are  several 
excellent  phrases  and  metaphors  to  be  met  with,  of 
which  the  beauty  is  withered  by  age,  and  the  color 
is  sullied  by  too  common  handling  ;  but  that  takes 
nothing  from  the  relish  to  an  understanding  man, 
neither  does  it  derogate  from  the  glory  of  those  an- 
cient authors,   who,   'tis  likely,    first   brought   those 

♦  See  Jacob  Grimm,  Ueber  Frauennamen  aus  Blumetty  in  his  ICiep 
nere  Schriften^  vol.  ii.  pp.  366-401  ;  and  on  tlie  subject  of  this  para- 
graph more  generally,  Schleicher,  Die  Deutsche  SpracJie^  P«  "5  sqq. 


SINGLE  WORDS   CONTAIN  POETRY.  69 

words  into  that  lustre."  We  read  in  one  of  Moliere's 
most  famous  comedies  of  one  who  was  surprised  to 
discover  that  he  had  been  talking  prose  all  his  life 
without  being  aware  of  it.  If  we  knew  all,  we  might 
be  much  more  surprised  to  find  that  we  had  been 
talking  poetry,  without  ever  having  so  much  as  sus- 
pected this.  For  indeed  poetry  and  passion  seek  to 
insinuate,  and  do  insinuate  themselves  everywhere 
in  language  ;  they  preside  continually  at  the  giving 
of  names  ;  they  enshrine  and  incarnate  themselves  in 
these.  I  shall  devote  my  present  lecture  to  a  few 
examples  and  illustrations,  by  which  I  would  make 
the  truth  of  this  which  I  have  just  affirmed  appear. 

'  Ihads  without  a  Homer,'  some  one  has  called, 
with  a  little  exaggeration,  the  beautiful  but  anony- 
mous ballad  poetry  of  Spain.  One  may  be  permitted, 
perhaps,  to  push  the  exaggeration  a  little  further  in 
the  same  direction,  and  to  apply  the  same  language 
not  merely  to  a  ballad,  but  to  a  word.  For  poetry, 
which  is  passion  and  imagination  embodying  them- 
selves in  words,  does  not  necessarily  demand  a  co7n' 
bination  of  words  for  this.  Of  this  passion  and 
imagination  a  single  word  may  be  the  vehicle.  As 
the  sun  can  image  itself  alike  in  a  tiny  dewdrop  or 
in  the  mighty  ocean,  and  can  do  it,  though  on  a  dif- 
ferent scale,  as  perfectly  in  the  one  as  in  the  other, 
so  the  spirit  of  poetry  can  dwell  in  and  glorify  alike 
a  word  and  an  Ihad.  Nothing  in  language  is  too 
small,  as  nothing  is  too  great,  for  it  to  fill  with  its 
presence.  Everywhere  it  can  find,  or,  not  finding, 
can  make,  a  shrine  for  itself,  which  afterwards  it  can 
render  translucent  and  transparent  with  its  own  in- 


70  ON  THE  POETRY  IN  WORDS. 

dwelling  glory.  On  every  side  we  are  beset  with 
poetry.  Popular  language  is  full  of  it,  of  words  used 
in  an  imaginative  sense,  of  things  called — and  not 
merely  in  transient  moments  of  high  passion,  and 
in  the  transfer  which  at  such  moments  finds  place  of 
the  image  to  the  thing  imaged,  but  permanently — 
by  names  having  immediate  reference  not  to  what 
they  are,  but  to  what  they  are  like.  All  language  is 
in  some  sort,  as  one  has  said,  a  collection  of  faded 
metaphors.* 

Sometimes  indeed  they  have  not  faded  at  all. 
Thus  at  Naples  it  is  the  ordinary  language  to  call  the 
lesser  storm- waves  *  pecore,' or  sheep;  the  larger, 
*  cavalloni,'  or  big  horses.  Who  that  has  watched  the 
foaming  crests,  the  white  manes,  as  it  were,  of  the 
larger  billows  as  they  advance  in  measured  order,  and 
rank  on  rank,  into  the  bay,  but  will  own  not  merely 
the  fitness,  but  the  grandeur  of  this  last  image  ?    Let 

*Jean  Paul :  1st  jede  Sprache  in  RUcksicht  geistiger  Beziebungen 
eine  Worterbuch  erblassten  Metaphorn.  We  regret  this,  while  yet  it 
is  not  wholly  matter  of  regret.  Gerber  {Sprache  ah  Kunst^  vol.  i.  p. 
387)  urges  that  language  would  be  quite  unmanageable,  that  the  words 
which  we  use  would  be  continually  clashing  with  and  contradicting  one 
another,  if  every  one  of  them  retained  a  lively  impress  of  the  image  on 
which  it  originally  rested,  and  recalled  this  to  our  mind.  His  words, 
somewhat  too  strongly  put,  are  these  :  P"'iir  den  Usus  der  Sprache,  fur 
ihren  Verstand  und  ihre  Verstrindlichkeit  ist  allerdings  das  Erblassen 
ihrer  Lautbilder,  so  dass  sie  allmiihlich  als  blosse  Zcichen  fiir  IJegrifTe 
fungiren,  nothwending.  Die  Ueberzahl  der  Bilder  wiirde,  wenn  sie  alle 
als  solche  wirkten,  nur  verwirren  und  jede  klarere  AufTassung,  wie  sie 
die  praktischen  Zwecke  der  Gegenwart  fordern,  unmoglich  machen. 
Die  Bilder  wiirden  ausserdem  einander  zum  Theil  zerstoren,  indem  sie 
die  Farben  verschiedener  Spiihren  zusammenfliessen  lassen,  und  damit 
fill-  den  Verstand  nur  Unsinn  bedeuten. 


TRIBULATION.  7 1 

me  illustrate  my  meaning  more  at  length  by  the 
word  *  tribulation.'  We  all  know  in  a  general  way 
that  this  word,  which  occurs  not  seldom  in  Scripture 
and  in  the  Liturgy,  means  affliction,  sorrow,  anguish  ; 
but  it  is  quite  worth  our  while  to  know  how  it  means 
this,  and  to  question  *  tribulation  '  a  little  closer.  It 
is  derived  from  the  Latin  ^  tribulum,'  which  was  the 
threshing  instrument  or  harrow,  whereby  the  Roman 
husbandman  separated  the  corn  from  the  husks  ;  and 
*  tribulatio  '  in  its  primary  significance  was  the  act 
of  this  separation.  But  some  Latin  writer  of  the 
Christian  Church  appropriated  the  word  and  image 
for  the  setting  forth  of  a  higher  truth ;  and  sorrow, 
distress,  and  adversity  being  the  appointed  means 
for  the  separating  in  men  of  whatever  in  them 
was  light,  trivial,  and  poor  from  the  solid  and  the 
true,  their  chaff  from  their  wheat,*  he  therefore 
called  these  sorrows  and  trials  *  tribulations,'  thresh- 
ings that  is,  of  the  inner  spiritual  man,  without 
which  there  could  be  no  fitting  him  for  the  heavenly 
garner.  Now  in  proof  of  my  assertion  that  a  single 
word  is  often  a  concentrated  poem,  a  little  grain 
of  pure  gold  capable  of  being  beaten  out  into  a 
broad  extent  of  gold-leaf,  I  will  quote,  in  reference 
to  this  very  word  *  tribulation,'  a  graceful  com- 
position by  George  Wither,  a  prolific  versifier, 
and  occasionally  a  poet,  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. You  will  at  once  perceive  that  it  is  all 
wrapped  up  in  this  word,  being  from  first  to  last 
only  the  explicit  unfolding  of  the  image  and  thought 

*  Triticum  itself  may  be  connected  with  tero,  tritus. 


^2  ON  THE   POETRY  IN  WORDS. 

which  this  word  has  implicitly  given  ;    it  is   as   fol- 
lows : — 

"  Till  from  the  straw  the  flail  the  corn  doth  beat, 
Until  the  chaff  be  purged  from  the  wheat. 
Yea,  till  the  mill  the  grains  in  pieces  tear, 
The  richness  of  the  flour  will  scarce  appear. 
So,  till  men's  persons  great  afflictions  touch. 
If  worth  be  found,  there  worth  is  not  so  much. 
Because,  like  wheat  in  straw,  they  have  not  yet 
That  value  which  in  threshing  they  may  get. 
For  till  the  bruising  flails  of  God's  corrections 
Have  threshed  out  of  us  our  vain  affections  ; 
Till  those  corruptions  which  do  misbecome  us 
Are  by  Thy  sacred  Spirit  winnowed  from  us  ; 
Until  from  us  the  straw  of  worldly  treasures, 
Till  all  the  dusty  chaff"  of  empty  pleasures, 
Yea,  till  His  flail  upon  us  He  doth  lay. 
To  thresh  the  husk  of  this  our  flesh  away, 
And  leave  the  soul  uncovered  ;  nay,  yet  more. 
Till  God  shall  make  our  very  spirit  poor, 
We  shall  not  up  to  highest  wealth  aspire  : 
But  then  we  shall ;  and  that  is  my  desire." 

This  deeper  religious  use  of  the  word  *  tribulation ' 
was  unknown  to  classical  antiquity,  belonging  exclu- 
sively to  the  Christian  writers ;  and  the  fact  that  the 
same  deepening  and  elevating  of  the  use  of  words 
recurs  in  a  multitude  of  other,  and  many  of  them  far 
more  signal,  instances,  is  one  well  deserving  to  be 
followed  up.  Nothing,  I  am  persuaded,  would  more 
mightily  convince  us  of  the  new  power  which  Chris- 
tianity proved  in  the  world  than  to  compare  the 
meaning  which  so  many  words  possessed  before  its 
rise,  and  the  deeper  meaning  which  they  obtained, 
so  soon  as  they  were  assumed  as  the  vehicles  of  its 


HOW   TO    STUDY   WORDS.  "Jl 

life,  the  new  thought  and  feehng  enlarging,  purifying, 
and  ennobhng  the  very  words  which  they  employed. 
This  is  a  subject  which  I  shall  have  occasion  to  touch 
on  more  than  once  in  these  lectures,  but  is  itself  well 
worthy  of,  as  it  would  afford  ample  material  for,  a 
volume. 

On  the  suggestion  of  this  word  *  tribulation,'  I  will 
quote  two  or  three  words  from  Coleridge,  bearing  on 
the  matter  in  hand.     He  has  said,  **  In  order  to  get 
the  full  sense  of  a  word,  we  should  first  present  to 
our  minds  the  visual  image  that  forms   its  primary 
meaning."     What  admirable  counselis  here  !     If  we 
would  but  accustom  ourselves  to  the  doing  of  this, 
what  a  vast  increase  of  precision  and  force  would  all 
the  language  which  we  speak,  and  which  others  speak 
to   us,  obtain  ;  how  often  would  that  which  is  now 
obscure  at  once  become  clear  ;  how  distinct  the  limits 
and  boundaries  of  that  which  is  often  now  confused 
and  confounded  !    It  is  difficult  to  measure  the  amount 
of  food  for  the  imagination,  as  well  as  gains  for  the 
intellect,  which  the  observing  of  this  single  rule  would 
afford  us.     Let  me  illustrate  this  by  one  or  two  ex- 
amples.    We  say  of  such  a  man  that  he  is  *  desultory.' 
Do  we  attach  any  very  distinct  meaning  to  the  word  ? 
Perhaps  not.     But  get  at  the  image  on  which  '  desul- 
tory '  rests ;  take  the  word  to  pieces  ;  learn  that  it  is 
from    de   and   salto,    *  to   leap    from    one   thing    to 
another,'  as  a  man  who  in  the  ring,  technically  called 
a    *  desultor,'    riding  two  or  three   horses  at   once, 
leaps  from    one   to    the   other,  being  never  on   the 
back  of  any  one  of  them  long  ;  take,  I,  say  the  word 
thus  to  pieces,  and  put  it  together  again,  and  what 

4 


74  ON  THE  POETRY   IN   WORDS. 

a  firm  and  vigorous  grasp  will  you  have  now  of  its 
meaning  !  A  *  desultory  '  man  is  one  who  jumps 
from  one  study  to  another,  and  never  continues  for 
any  length  of  time  in  one.  Again,  you  speak  of  a 
person  as  *  capricious,*  or  full  of '  caprices.'  But  what 
exactly  are  caprices  ?  *  Caprice  *  is  from  capra,  a 
goat.  If  ever  you  have  watched  a  goat,  you  will 
have  observed  how  sudden,  how  unexpected,  how 
unaccountable,  are  the  leaps  and  springs,  now  for- 
ward, now  sideward,  now  upward,  in  which  it  in- 
dulges. A  *  caprice,'  then,  is  a  movement  of  the 
mind  as  unaccountable,  as  little  to  be  calculated  on 
beforehand,  as  the  springs  and  bounds  of  a  goat.  Is 
not  the  word  so  understood  a  far  more  picturesque  one 
than  it  was  before  ?  and  is  there  not  some  real  gain 
in  the  vigor  and  vividness  of  impression  which  is  in 
this  way  obtained  ?  *  Pavaner '  is  the  French  equiva- 
lent for  our  verb  *  to  strut,'  '  fourmiller '  for  our  verb 
*  to  swarm.'  But  is  it  not  a  real  gain  to  know  further 
that  the  one  is  to  strut  as  the  peacock  does,  the  other  to 
swarm  as  do  ants  ?  There  are  at  the  same  time,  as  must 
be  freely  owned,  investigations  moral  no  less  than 
material,  in  which  the  nearer  the  words  employed 
approach  to  an  algebraic  notation,  and  the  less  dis- 
turbed or  colored  they  are  by  any  reminiscences  of 
the  ultimate  grounds  on  which  they  rest,  the  better 
they  are  likely  to  fulfil  the  duties  assigned  to  them  ; 
but  these  are  exceptions. 

The  poetry  which  has  been  embodied  in  the  names 
of  places,  in  those  names  which  designate  the  leading 
features  of  outward  nature,  promontories,  mountains 
capes,  and  the  like,  is  very  worthy  of  being  elicited 


ORIGIN  OF  NAMES.  75 

and  evoked  anew,  latent  as  it  now  has  oftentimes  be- 
come. Nowhere  do  we  so  easily  forget  that  names 
had  once  a  peculiar  fitness,  which  was  the  occasion 
of  their  giving.  Color  has  often  suggested  the  name, 
as  in  the  well-known  instance  of  our  own  '  Albion,' — 
*  the  silver-coasted  isle,'  as  Tennyson  so  beautifully  has 
called  it, — which  had  this  name  from  the  white  line  of 
cliffs  which  it  presents  to  those  approaching  it  by  the 
narrow  seas.  '  Himalaya  '  is  *  the  abode  of  snow.* 
OfteUf  too,  it  is  shape  and  configuration  which  is  in- 
corporated in  the  name,  as  in  ^  Trinacria,'  or '  the  three- 
promontoried  land,'  which  was  the  Greek  name  of 
Sicily  ;  in  *  Drepanum,'  or  '  the  sickle,'  the  name 
which  a  town  on  the  north-west  promontory  of  the 
island  bore,  from  the  sickle-shaped  tongue  of  land 
on  which  it  was  built.  But  more  striking,  as  the 
embodiment  of  a  poetical  feeling,  is  the  modern 
name  of  the  great  southern  peninsula  of  Greece. 
We  are  all  aware  that  it  is  called  the  *  Morea  ;  '  but 
we  may  not  be  so  well  aware  from  whence  that  name 
is  derived.  It  had  long  been  the  fashion  among 
ancient  geographers  to  compare  the  shape  of  this 
region  to  a  platane  leaf;  *  and  a  glance  at  the  map 
will  show  that  the  general  outline  of  that  leaf,  with 
its  sharply-incised  edges,  justified  the  comparison. 
This,  however,  had  remained  merely  as  a  compari- 
son-; but  at  the  shifting  and  changing  of  names, 
which  went  with  the  breaking  up  of  the  old  Greek 
and  Roman  civilization,  the  resemblance  of  this  region 


*  Strabo,  viii.   2  ;    Pliny,  /I.  N.   iv.  5      Agalhemerus,  1.  i.   p.    15 
€xct»'  Se  H/jloiov  axVH-a  <pv\\(f  irXardyov. 


^6  ON  THE  POETRY  IN  WORDS. 

to  a  leaf,  not  any  longer  a  platane,  but  a  mulberry- 
leaf,  appeared  so  strong,  that  it  exchanged  its  classic 
name  of  Peloponnesus  for  '  Morea,'  which  embodied 
men's  sense  of  this  resemblance,  morns  being  a  mul- 
berry tree  in  Latin,  and  ^lopka  in  Greek.  This  etymo- 
logy of  *  Morea '  has  been  called  in  question  ;  *  but,  as 
it  seems  to  me,  on  no  sufficient  grounds.  Deducing, 
as  one  objector  does,  '  Morea '  from  a  Slavonic  word, 
^  more,^  the  sea,  he  finds  in  this  derivation  a  support 
for  his  favorite  notion  that  the  modern  population  of 
Greece  is  not  descended  from  the  ancient,  but  consists 
in  far  the  larger  proportion  of  intrusive  Slavonic 
races. 

In  other  ways  also  the  names  of  places  will  oftentimes 
embody  some  poetical  aspect  under  which  now  or  at 
some  former  period  men  learned  to  regard  them. 
Oftentimes  when  discoverers  come  upon  a  new  land 
they  will  seize  with  a  firm  grasp  of  the  imagination 
the  most  striking  feature  which  it  presents  to  their 
eyes,  and  permanently  embody  this  in  a  word. 
Thus  the  island  of  Madeira  is  now,  I  believe,  nearly 
bare  of  wood  ;  but  its  sides  were  covered  with  forests 
at  the  time  when  it  was  first  discovered,  and  hence 
the  name,  '  maderia'  in  Portuguese  having  this  mean- 
ing of  wood.  Some  have  said  that  the  first  Spanish 
discoverers  of  Florida  gave  it  this  name  from  the  rich 
carpeting  of  flowers  which,   at  the  time  when  first 

*  By  Fallmerayer,  Gesch  der  Halbinsel  Morea,,  p.  240,  sqq.  ;  and  by 
Isaac  Taylor,  IVords  and  Places^  p.  398.  The  island  of  Ceylon, 
known  to  the  Greeks  as  Taprobane,  is  in  like  manner  said  to  owe  its 
name  to  a  resemblance,  real  or  fancied,  whicli  in  outline  it  bore  to  the 
leaf  of  the  betel  tree. 


NAMES   OF   PLACES.  TJ 

their  eyes  beheld  it,  everywhere  covered  the  soil.* 
Surely  Florida,  as  the  name  passes  under  our  eye, 
or  from  our  lips,  is  something  more  than  it  was  be- 
fore, when  we  may  thus  think  of  it  as  the  land  of 
flowers. t      We  have  heard  something  of  Port  Natal 

*  But  see  on  this  point  Isaac  Taylor,   Words  and  Places,  p.  1 3. 
f  An  Italian  poet,  Fazio  degli  Uberti,   tells  us  that  Florence  has  its 
appellation  from  the  same  cause  : 

Poiche  era  posta  in  un  prato  di  fiori, 
Le  denno  il  nome  bello,  onde  s'  ingloria. 

It  would  be  instructive  to  draw  together  a  collection  of  etymologies 
which  have  been  woven  into  verse.  These  are  so  little  felt  to  be  alien 
to  the  spirit  of  poetry,  that  they  exist  in  large  numbers,  and  often  lend 
to  the  poem  in  which  they  find  a  place  a  charm  and  interest  of  their  own. 
In  five  lines  of  Paradise  Lost  Milton  introduces  four  sucli  etymologies, 
namely,  those  of  the  four  fabled  rivers  of  hell,  though  this  will  some- 
'times  escape  the  notice  of  the  English  reader  : 

**  Abhorred  Styx,  the  flood  of  deadly  hate^ 
Sad  Acheron  of  sorrow^  black  and  deep, 
Cocytus,  named  of  lai7ieJitation  loud 
Heard  on  the  rueful  stream ;  fierce  Phlegethon, 
Whose  waves  of  torrent yfr^  inflame  with  rage." 

*'  That  great  master  of  the  proprieties,"  Virgil,  as  Bishop  Pearson 
has  so  happily  called  him,  does  not  shun,  but  rather  loves  to  introduce 
them,  as  witness  his  etymology  of  Byrsa,  yEn.  i.  367,  368  ;  v.  59,  63  ; 
of  Silvius,  y^n.  vi.  763,  765  ;  of  *  Latium,'  with  reference  to  Saturn 
having  remained  latettt  there  (^-^n.  viii.  322 ;   cf.  Ovid,  Fasti,  i.  238)  ; 

Latiumque  vocari 
Maluit,  his  quoniam  latuisset  tutus  in  oris  : 

and  again  of  '  Avemus '  (=  iopj'os,  ^n.  vi.  243) ;  being  indeed  in  this 
anticipated  by  Lucretius  (vi.  741) : 

quia  sunt  avibus  contraria  cunctis. 
Ovid's  taste  is  far  from  faultless,  and  his  example  cannot  go  for  much ; 


78  ON   THE   POETRY   IN   WORDS. 

lately,  we  may  in  coming  years  hear  more.  The 
name  also  embodies  a  fact  which  must  be  of  interest 
to  its  inhabitants,  namely,  that  this  port  was  first  dis- 
covered on  Christmas  Day.  the  dies  natalis  of  our 
Lord. 

Then  again  what  poetry  is  there,  as  inaeed  there 
ought  to  be,  in  the  names  of  flowers  !  I  do  not  speak 
of  those  the  exquisite  grace  and  beauty  of  whose 
names  is  forced  on  us  so  that  we  cannot  miss  it,  such 
as  '  meadow-sweet,'  *  eye-bright,'  '  blue-bell,  '  mai- 
den-hair,' '  sun-dew,'  '  forget-me-not,'  *  lady's 
smock,'  '  our  Lady's  slipper,'  'Venus'  looking-glass,' 

*  queen-of-the-meadows,'  *  love-in-idleness,'  *  reine- 
marguerite,'  '  rosemary,'  '  gilt-cup  '  (a  local  name  for 
the  butter-cup,  drawn  from  the  golden  gloss  of  its 
petals),  *  cuckoo-flower,'  blossoming  as  this  orchis 
does  when  the  cuckoo  is  first  heard,  *  herb  of  grace,* 
and  the  like  ;  but  take  *  daisy  ; '  surely  this  charming 
little  English  flower,  which  has  stirred  the  peculiar 
affection  of  English  poets  from  Chaucer  to  Words- 
worth, and  received  the  tribute  of  their  song,  be- 
but  he  is  always  a  graceful  versifier,  and  his  Fasti  swarm  with  etymolo- 
gies, correct  and  incorrect ;  as  of  *  Agonalis  '  (i,  322),  of  '  Aprilis  * 
(iv.  89),  of  'Augustus'  (i.  609-614'*,  of  'Februarius*  (ii.  19-22),  of 
Miostia'  (i.  336),  of  'Janus'  (i.  120-127),  of  'Junius'  (vi.  22),  of 
'  Lemures'  (v.  479-484),  of  '  Lucina '  (ii.  449),  of  '  mnjcstas'  (v.  26), 
of  '  Orion  '  (v.  535),  of  '  pecunia  '  (v.  2S0,  281),  of  '  senatus  '  (v.  64), 
of  *  Sulmo '  (iv.  79  ;  cf.  Silius  Italicus,  ix.  70) ;  of  *  Vesta  *  (vi.  299), 
of  '  victima '  (i.  335).  He  has  tliem  also  elsewhere,  as  of  *  Tonii ' 
(  Trist.  iii.  9,  33).     Lucilius,  in  like  manner,  gives  us  the  etymology  of 

*  iners '  : 

Ut  perhibetur  iners,  ars  in  quo  non  crit  uUa ; 

and  Propertius  (iv.  2,  3)  of  '  Vcrlumuus.' 


NAMES   OF  FLOWERS.  79 

comes  more  charming  yet  when  we  know,  as  Chaucer 
long  ago  has  told  us,  that  '  daisy '  Is  day's  eye,  the 
eye  of  day ;  these  are  his  words  : 

**  That  well  by  reason  it  men  callen  may 
The  daisie^  or  else  the  eye  of  day." 

For  only  consider  how  much  is  Implied  here.  To 
the  sun  in  the  heavens  this  name,  eye  of  day,  was 
naturally  first  given,  and  those  who  transferred  the 
title  to  our  little  field  flower  meant  no  doubt  to  liken 
its  Inner  yellow  disk  or  shield  to  the  great  golden 
orb  of  the  sun,  and  the  white  florets  which  encircle 
this  disk  to  the  rays  which  the  sun  spreads  on  all  sides 
around  him.  What  Imagination  was  here,  to  suggest 
a  comparison  such  as  this,  binding  together  as  this 
does  the  smallest  and  the  greatest!  what  a  travelling 
of  the  poet's  eye,  with  the  power  which  is  the  privi- 
lege of  that  eye,  from  earth  to  heaven  and  from 
heaven  to  earth,  and  of  linking  both  together  !  Call 
up  before  your  mind's  eye  the  '  lavish  gold '  of  the 
drooping  laburnum  when  in  flower,  and  you  will 
recognize  the  poetry  of  the  title,  '  the  golden  rain,' 
which  in  German  it  bears.  *  Celandine'  does  not  so 
clearly  tell  Its  own  tale  ;  and  It  Is  only  when  you 
have  investigated  the  ')(e\Lh6viov  of  which  '  celandine ' 
is  the  Enghsh  representative,  that  the  word  will  yield 
up  the  poetry  which  is  concealed  In  it. 

And  then  again,  what  poetry  is  there  often  In  the 
names  of  birds  and  beasts  and  fishes,  and  Indeed  of  all 
the  animated  world  around  us  ;  how  skilfully  are  these 
names  adapted  to  bring  out  the  most  striking  and 
characteristic  features  of  the  objects  to  which  they  are 


80  ON  THE  POETRY  IN  WORDS. 

given.  Thus  when  the  Romans  became  acquainted 
with  the  stately  girafife,  long  concealed  from  them  in 
the  interior  deserts  of  Africa  (which  we  learn  from 
Pliny  they  first  did  in  the  shows  exhibited  by  JuHus 
Caesar),  it  was  happily  imagined  to  designate  a  crea- 
ture combining,  though  with  infinitely  more  grace, 
yet  something  of  the  height  and  even  the  proportions 
of  the  camel  with  the  spotted  skin  of  the  pard,  by  a 
name  which  should  incorporate  both  these  its  most 
prominent  features,*  calling  it  the  '  camelopard.'  Nor 
can  we,  I  think,  hesitate  to  accept  that  account  as 
the  true  one,  which  describes  the  word  as  no  artificial 
creation  of  the  scientific  naturalist,  but  as  bursting 
extempore  from  the  lips  of  the  populace,  who  after  all 
are  the  truest  namers,  at  the  first  moment  when  the 
novel  creature  was  presented  to  their  gaze.  '  Cerf- 
volant,'  a  name  which  the  French  have  so  happily 
given  to  the  horned  scarabeus,  the  same  which  we 
somewhat  less  poetically  call  the  *  stag-beetle,'  is  an- 
other example  of  what  may  be  effected  with  the  old 
materials,  by  merely  bringing  them  into  new  and 
happy  combinations. 

The  butterfly  is  in  Spanish  *  mariposa.'  The  deri- 
vation is  curious,  if  it  may  be  trusted,  and  one  who 
has  good  right  to  be  heard  in  the  matter  adduces  it 
with  confidence. t  Nothing  in  the  butterfly  is  so 
striking  as  the  alternations  of  restless  movement  while 

*  Varro  :  Quod  erat  figur^  ut  camelus,  maculis  ut  panthera ;  aiid 
Horace  {£/>.  ii.  i,  196) : 

Diversum  confusa  genus  panthera  camelo. 

f  Malm,  Etymol.  Forschungen^  p.  9. 


RURAL  DIALECTS.  8 1 

it  is  on  the  wing,  and  then  of  perfect  quiet  when  it 
has  Hghted.  He  divides  the  word  thus,  '  mar-i-posa/ 
or  '  sea  and  rest ;  '  first  the  restless  agitation  as  of 
the  sea,  and  this  presently  exchanged  for  perfect  re- 
pose, and  finds  here  a  key  to  the  explanation  of  a 
word  which  has  hitherto  perplexed  all  etymologists. 

You  know  the  appearance  of  the  lizard,  and  the 
star-VikQ  shape  of  the  spots  which  are  sown  over  its 
back.  Well,  in  Latin  it  is  called  '  stellio,'  from  stella^ 
a  star ;  just  as  the  basihsk  had  in  Greek  the  name  of 
^  Httle-king '  because  of  the  shape  as  of  a  kingly 
crown  which  the  spots  on  its  head  might  be  made  by 
the  fancy  to  assume.     Follow  up  the  etymology  of 

*  squirrel,'  and  you  will  find  that  the  graceful  creature 
which  bears  this  name  has  obtained  it  as  being  wont 
to  sit  under  the  shadow  of  its  own  tail.  Need  I  re- 
mind you  of  our  *  goldfinch,'  evidently  so  called 
from  that  bright  patch  of  yellow  on  its  wing  ;  our 

*  kingfisher,'  having  its  name  from  the  royal  beauty, 
the  kingly  splendor  of  the  plumage  with  which  it  is 
adorned  ?  The  lady-bird  or  lady-cow  is  prettily 
named,  as  indeed  the  whole  legend  about  it  is  full  of 
grace  and  fancy  ;  but  a  common  name  which  in  many 
of  our  country  parts  it  bears,  the  '  golden  knop,'  is 
prettier  still.  And  indeed  in  our  country  dialects 
there  is  a  wide  poetical  nomenclature  which  is  well 
worthy  of  recognition  ;  thus  the  shooting  lights  of 
the  Aurora  Borealis  are  in  Lancashire  *  the  Merry 
Dancers  '  ;  clouds  piled  up  in  a  particular  fashion  are 
in  many  parts  styled  *  Noah's  Ark '  ;  the  puft"-ball  is 
'the  Devil's  snuff-box'  ;  the  dragon-fly,  *  the  Devil's 
darning-needle '  ;    a  large  black  beetle,  *  the  Devil's 

4* 


83  ON  THE  POETRY   IN   WORDS. 

coach-horse.'  Any  one  who  has  watched  the  kestrel 
hanging  poised  in  the  air,  before  it  swoops  upon  its 
prey,  will  acknowledge  the  felicity  of  the  name  '  wind- 
hover,' or  sometimes  *  windfanner,'  which  it  bears. 

The  amount  is  very  large  of  curious  legendary  lore 
which  is  everywhere  bound  up  in  words,  and  which 
they,  if  duly  solicited,  Avill  give  back  to  us  again. 
For  example  the  Greek  *  halcyon,'  which  we  have 
adopted  without  change,  has  reference,  and  wraps  up 
in  itself  an  allusion,  to  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
significant  legends  of  heathen  antiquity  ;  according 
to  which  the  sea  preserved  a  perfect  calmness  for  all 
the  period,  the  fourteen  '  halcyon  days,'  during  which 
this  bird  was  brooding  over  her  nest.  The  poetry 
of  the  name  survives,  whether  the  name  suggested 
the  legend,  or  the  legend  the  name.  Take  again  the 
names  of  some  of  our  precious  stones,  as  of  the  topaz, 
so  called,  as  some  said,  because  men  were  only  able 
to  conjecture  (roTrd^eLv)  the  position  of  the  cloud-con- 
cealed island  from  which  it  was  brought.*  But  more 
graceful  than  all  these  is  the  legend  which  clings  to 
the  *  gossomer,'  or  God's  summer,  and  which  speaks 
out  most  distinctly  in  the  name  *  Marien-fiiden,'  which 
in  German  it  bears — namely,  that  this  gossomer  is 
the  remnant  of  Our  Lady's  winding-sheet,  which  fell 
away  in  these  lightest  fragments,  as  she  was  assumed 
into  heaven. 

Very  curious  is  the  determination  which  some 
words,  indeed  many,  seem  to  manifest,  that  their 
poetry  shall  not  die ;  or,  if  it  dies  in  one  form  that  it 

*  Pliny,  //.  JV.  xxxvii.  32. 


POETRY  REVIVED   IN  WORDS.  83 

shall  revive  in  another.  Thus  if  there  is  danger  that, 
transferred  from  one  language  to  another,  they  shall 
no  longer  speak  to  the  imagination  of  men  as  they  did 
of  old,  they  will  make  to  themselves  a  new  life,  they 
will  acquire  a  new  soul  in  the  room  of  that  which  has 
ceased  to  quicken  and  inform  them  any  more.  Let 
me  make  clear  what  I  mean  by  two  or  three  exam- 
ples. The  Germans,  knowing  nothing  of  carbuncles, 
had  naturally  no  word  of  their  own  for  them  ;  and 
when  they  first  found  it  necessary  to  name  them,  as 
naturally  borrowed  the  Latin  *  carbunculus,'  which 
originally  had  meant  '  a  httle  live  coal,'  to  designate 
these  precious  stones  of  a  fiery  red.  But  '  carbun- 
culus,' a  real  word,  full  of  poetry  and  life,  for  a  Latin, 
would  have  been  only  an  arbitrary  sign  for  as  many 
as  were  ignorant  of  that  language.  What  then  did 
they,  or  what,  rather,  did  the  working  genius  of 
the  language,  do  ?  It  adopted,  but,  in  adopting, 
modified  slightly  yet  effectually  the  word,  changing 
it  into  '  Karfunkel,'  thus  retaining  the  framework  of 
the  original,  yet  at  the  same  time,  inasmuch  as  *  fun- 
keln '  signifies  *  to  sparkle,'  reproducing  now  in  an 
entirely  novel  manner  the  image  of  the  bright  spark- 
ling of  the  stone  for  every  knower  of  the  German 
tongue,  *  Margarita  '  belongs  to  the  earliest  group 
of  Latin  words  adopted  into  the  English  language. 
The  word,  however,  told  nothing  about  itself  to  those 
who  adopted  it.  But  the  pearl  might  be  poetically 
contemplated  as  the  sea-stone  ;  and  so  our  fathers 
presently  transformed  *  margarita  '  into  *  mere-greot,' 
which  means  nothing  less. 

Take  another  illustration  of  this  from  another  quar 


84  ON  THE  POETRY  IN   WORDS. 

ter.  The  French  *  rossignol/  a  nightingale,  is  un- 
doubtedly the  Latin  '  lusciniola,'  the  diminutive  of 

*  luscinia,'  with  the  alteration  so-  frequent  in  the 
Romance   languages,   of  the  commencing    *  1 '    into 

*  r.'  Whatever  may  be  the  etymology  of  *  luscinia,* 
whether  it  be  *  in  lucis  cano,'  the  singer  in  the  groves, 
or  'lugens  cano,'  the  mourning  singer,  or  *  in  lucem 
cano,'  the  singer  until  dawn,  or  *  luscus  cano,'  the 
weak-eyed  and  therefore  twilight  singer,  with  which 
our  *  nightingale '  would  most  nearly  correspond,  or 
whether  all  these  are  alike  astray,  it  is  plain  that  for 
Frenchmen  in  general  the  word  would  no  longer 
suggest  any  meaning  at  all,  hardly  even  for  French 
scholars,  after  the  serious  transformations  which  it 
had  undergone  ;  while  yet,  at  the  same  time,  in  the 
exquisitely  musical  *  rossignol,'  and  still  more  per- 
haps in  the  Italian  *  usignuolo,'  there  is  an  evident 
intention  and  endeavor  to  express  something  of  the 
music  of  the  bird's  song  in  the  liquid  melody  of  the 
imitative  name  which  it  bears  ;  and  thus  to  put  a 
new  soul  into  the  word,  in  lieu  of  that  other  wliich 
had  escaped.  Or  again — whatever  may  be  the  mean- 
ing of  Senlac,  the  name  of  that  field  where  the  ever- 
memorable  battle,  now  better  known  as  the  Battle  of 
Hastings,  was  fought,  it  certainly  was  not  '  Sanglac,' 
or  Lake  of  Blood  ;  the  word  only  shaping  itself  into 
this  significant  form  subsequently  to  the  battle,  and 
in  consequence  of  it. 

I  must  add  one  example  more  of  the  perishing  of 
the  old  life  in  a  word,  and  the  birth  of  a  new  in  its 
stead.  Every  one  who  has  visited  Lucerne  must 
remember  the    rugged   mountain   called    '  Mont   de 


POETRY   OF  NOMENCLATURE.  85 

Pilate*  or  *  Pilate's  mountain,'  which  stands  opposite 
to  him,  and  if  he  has  been  among  the  few  who  have 
cared  to  climb  it,  will  have  been  shown  by  his  guide 
the  lake  at  its  summit  in  which  Pontius  Pilate  in  his 
despair  drowned  himself,  with  an  assurance  that  from 
this  the  mountain  obtained  its  name.  Nothing  of 
the  kind.  *  Mont  de  Pilate '  was  originally  *  Mons 
Pileatiis'  *■  the  hatted  hill ;  '  the  clouds,  as  one  so 
often  sees,  gathering  round  its  summit,  and  forming 
the  shape  and  appearance  of  a  turban  or  hat.  When 
in  the  middle  ages  this  true  derivation  was  forgotten 
or  misunderstood,  the  other  was  Invented  and  im- 
posed. An  instructive  example  this,  let  me  observe 
by  the  way,  of  that  which  has  happened  continually 
in  far  older  legends  ;  I  mean  that  the  name  has  sug- 
gested the  legend,  and  not  the  legend  the  name.  We 
have  an  apt  illustration  of  this  in  the  old  notion  that 
the  crocodile  (KpoKoBeiXo^;)  could  not  endure  saffron. 

I  have  said  that  poetry  and  imagination  seek  to 
penetrate  everywhere  ;  and  this  is  literally  true  ;  for 
even  the  hardest,  austerest  studies  cannot  escape  their 
influence  ;  they  will  put  something  of  their  own  life 
into  the  dry  bones  of  a  nomenclature  which  seems 
the  remotest  from  them,  the  most  opposed  to  them. 
He  who  In  prosody  called  a  metrical  foot  consisting 
of  one  long  syllable  followed  by  two  short  (-v^v-f)  a 
*  dactyle,'  or  a  finger,  with  allusion  to  the  long  first 
joint  of  the  finger,  and  the  two  shorter  which  follow, 
whoever  he  may  have  been,  and  some  one  was  the 
first  to  do  it,  must  be  allowed  to  have  brought  a 
certain  amount  of  imagination  into  a  study  so  alien 
to  it  as  prosody  very  well  might  appear. 


86  ON  THE   POETRY   IN   WORDS. 

He  did  the  same  in  another  not  very  poetical 
region  who  invented  the  Latin  law-term,  *  stellio- 
natus.'  The  word  includes  all  such  legally  punish- 
able acts  of  swindling  or  injurious  fraud  committed 
on  the  property  of  another  as  are  not  specified  in 
any  more  precise  enactment  ;  being  drawn  and  de- 
rived from  a  practice  attributed,  I  suppose  without 
any  foundation,  to  the  lizard  or  *  stellio '  we  spoke  of 
just  now.  Having  cast  its  winter  skin,  it  is  reported 
to  swallow  it  at  once,  and  this  out  of  a  malignant 
grudge  lest  any  should  profit  by  that  which,  if  not 
now,  was  of  old  accounted  a  sure  specific  in  certain 
diseases.  The  term  was  then  transferred  to  any 
malicious  wrong  whatever  done  by  one  person  to 
another. 

In  other  regions  it  was  only  to  be  expected  that 
we  should  find  poetry.  Thus  it  is  nothing  strange 
that  architecture,  which  has  been  called  frozen  music, 
and  which  is  poetry  embodied  in  material  forms, 
should  have  a  language  of  its  own,  not  dry  nor  hard, 
not  of  the  mere  intellect  alone,  but  one  in  the  form- 
ing of  which  it  is  evident  that  the  imaginative  facul- 
ties were  at  work.  To  take  only  one  example — this, 
however,  from  Gothic  art,  which  naturally  yields  the 
most  remarkable — what  exquisite  poetry  in  the  name 
of  '  the  rose  window,'  or  better  still,  '  the  rose,'  given 
to  the  rich  circular  aperture  of  stained  glass  with  its 
leaf-like  compartments,  in  the  transepts  of  a  Gothic 
cathedral  !  Here  indeed  we  may  note  an  exception 
from  that  which  usually  finds  place  ;  for  usually  art 
borrows  beauty  from  nature,  and  very  faintly,  if  at 
all,  reflects  back  beauty  upon  her.     In  this  present 


ARCHITECTURAL  TERMS.  8/ 

instance,  however,  art  is  so  beautiful,  has  reached 
so  glorious  and  perfect  a  development^  that  if  the 
associations  which  the  rose  supplies  lend  to  that  win- 
dow some  hues  of  beauty  and  a  glory  which  otherwise 
it  would  not  have,  the  latter  abundantly  repays  the 
obligation  ;  and  even  the  rose  itself  may  become 
lovelier  still,  associated  with  those  shapes  of  grace, 
those  rich  gorgeous  tints,  and  all  the  religious  sym- 
bolism of  that  in  art  which  has  borrowed  and  bears 
its  name.  After  this  it  were  little  to  note  the  imagi- 
nation, although  that  was  most  real,  which  dictated 
the  term  '  flamboyant '  to  express  the  wavy  flame- 
like outline,  which,  at  a  particular  period  of  art,  the 
tracery  in  the  Gothic  window  assumed. 

*  Godscare,'  or  *  Godsfield,'  is  the  German  name 
for  a  burial-ground,  and  once  was  our  own,  though 
we  unfortunately  have  nearly  if  not  quite  let  it  go. 
What  a  hope  full  of  immortality  does  this  little  word 
proclaim  !  how  rich  is  it  in  all  the  highest  elements 
of  poetry,  and  of  poetry  in  its  noblest  aUiance,  that 
is,  in  its  alliance  with  faith — able  as  it  is  to  cause  all 
loathsome  images  of  decay  and  dissolution  to  dis- 
appear, not  denying  them,  but  suspending,  losing, 
absorbing  them  in  the  sublimer  thought  of  the  victory 
over  death,  of  that  harvest  of  life  which  God  shall 
one  day  so  gloriously  reap  even  there  where  now 
seems  the  very  triumphing  place  of  death. 

Lastly,  let  me  note  the  pathos  of  poetry  which  lies 
often  in  the  mere  tracing  of  the  succession  of  changes 
in  meaning  which  certain  words  have  undergone. 
Thus  *elend  '  in  German,  a  beautiful  word,  now  signi- 
fies wretchedness,   but  at   first  it   signified   exile  or 


88  ON  THE   POETRY   IN   WORDS. 

banishment.*  The  sense  of  this  separation  from  the 
native  land  and  from  all  home  delights  as  being  the 
woe  of  all  woes,  the  crown  of  all  sorrows,  little  by- 
little  so  penetrated  the  word,  that  what  at  first  ex- 
pressed only  one  form  of  misery,  has  ended  by  signi- 
fying all.  It  is  not  a  little  notable,  as  showing  the 
same  feeling  elsewhere  at  work,  that  '  essil '  (=  exi- 
lium)  in  old  French  signified,  not  as  one  might  have 
expected,  banishment,  but  ruin. 

Let  us  then  acknowledge  man  a  born  poet.  If 
not  every  man  always  himself  a  *  maker,'  yet  ever- 
more able  to  rejoice  in  what  others  have  made,  adopt- 
ing it  freely,  moving  gladly  in  it  as  his  own  most 
congenial  element  and  sphere.  For  indeed,  as  man 
does  not  live  by  bread  alone,  as  little  does  he  seek 
in  language  merely  the  instrument  which  shall  put 
him  in  such  relations  with  his  fellow  men  as  shall  en- 
able him  to  buy  and  sell  and  get  gain,  or  otherwise 
make  provision  for  the  lower  necessities  of  his  animal 
life  ;  but  something  rather  which  shall  also  stand  in  a 
real  relation  and  correspondence  to  the  higher  facul- 
ties of  his  being,  shall  feed,  nourish,  and  sustain  these, 
shall  stir  him  with  images  of  beauty  and  suggestions 
of  greatness.  Neither  here  nor  any  where  else  could 
he  become  the  mere  utilitarian  even  if  he  would. 
Despite  his  utmost  efforts,  were  he  mad  enough  to 
employ  them,  he  could  not  succeed  in  exhausting  his 
language  of  the  poetical  element  which  is  inherent  in 

*  *  Ellinge,'  a  very  exquisite  word,  common  in  the  south  of  England, 
and  signifying  at  once  lonely  and  sad,  is  this,  and  not  connected,  as  is 
so  often  assumed,  with  the  French  '  Eloigner.'  On  '  elend  *  there  is  an 
interesting  discussion  in  Delitzsch  On  the  Psalms^  vol.  ii.  p.  192. 


WORDS  THE   WINDS   OF  THE   SOUL.  89 

it ;  he  could  not  succeed  in  stripping  it  of  blossom, 
flower  and  fruit,  and  leaving  it  nothing  but  a  bare 
and  naked  stem.  He  may  fancy  for  a  moment  that 
he  has  succeeded  in  doing  this  ;  but  it  will  only  need 
for  him  to  become  a  little  better  philologer,  to  go  a 
little  deeper  into  the  study  of  the  words  which  he  is 
using,  and  he  will  discover  that  he  is  as  remote  from 
this  miserable  consummation  as  ever. 

For  ourselves,  let  us  desire  nothing  of  the  kind. 
Our  life  is  not  in  other  ways  so  full  of  imagination 
and  poetry  that  we  need  give  any  diligence  to  empty 
it  of  that  which  it  possesses  of  these.  It  will  always 
have  for  us  all  enough  of  dull  and  prosaic  and  com- 
monplace. What  profit  can  there  be  in  seeking  to 
extend  the  region  of  these  ?  Profit  there  would  be 
none,  but  on  the  contrary  infinite  loss.  It  is  stagnant 
waters  which  corrupt  themselves  ;  not  those  in  agita- 
tion and  on  which  the  winds  of  heaven  are  freely 
blowing.  The  words  of  passion  and  imagination  are, 
as  one  so  grandly  called  them  of  old,  *  v/inds  of  the 
soul'  {^frv)(f](;  dvefjuoi),  to  keep  it  in  healthful  motion 
and  agitation,  to  lift  it  upward  and  to  dtive  it  onward, 
to  preserve  it  from  that  unwholes^^me  stagnation 
which  constitutes  the  fatal  prepared  ci'i')  for  'jq  many 
other  and  worse  evils. 


BLACKBOARD    EXERCISES. 

LECTURE   11. 
ON  THE   POETRY  IN  WORDS. 


EXERCISE  No.  I. 
INTRODUCTION. 


Poetry  in 

WORDS. 

I.  Unrecognized. 

{a.) 

''  Margaret.' 

{b.) 

"  Esther." 

{c.) 

"  Susanna." 

{d) 

''  Stephen." 

2.  Antiquated. 

3.  Unappreciated. 

A.  Single  words  contain  poetry. 

1 .  Combinations  unnecessary. 

2.  Embodiment  perfect. 

B.  Popular  language  full  of  poetry. 

I.  "  Pecori." 
2    ''Cavalloni." 

3.  ''Tribulation." 

(a.)  Derivation. 

{b.)  Primary  meaning. 

{c.)  Appropriation. 

(d.)  Secondary  meaning. 

{e.)  Rchgious  use. 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES. 


91 


II.    How  TO   STUDY   WORDS. 

1.  "  Desultory." 

2.  ''  Capricious." 

3.  "To  strut." 

4.  "  To  swarm." 

EXERCISE  No.  11. 
POETRY  IN  THE  NAMES  OF  PLACES. 
I.  Suggested  by  peculiar  features. 

1.  Color. 

(a.)  "Albion." 
(^.)  "  Himalaya." 

2,  Shape. 

{a.)  "  Trinacria." 
(b.)  "  Drepanum." 
{c.)  "Morea." 
II.  Suggested  by  circumstance  of  discovery- 

1.  "Madeira." 

2.  Milton's  etymologies,  etc.     (Note.) 

3.  "  Florida." 

4.  "  Port  Natal." 


EXERCISE   No. 
POETIC    NOMENCLATURE. 


III. 


L  Bot 


anical. 
"  Meadow-sweet." 
"  Eye-bright." 
"  Blue-bell." 
"  Maiden-hair." 
"  Sun-dew." 
"  Forget-me-not." 
"  Lady's-smock." 
"  Our  Lady's  slipper." 
"  Venus'  looking-glass." 
"  Queen-of-the-meadows. 
"  Love-in-idleness." 


92  ON  THE  POETRY   IN  WORDS. 

12.  '*  Reine- Marguerite." 

13.  "  Rosemary." 

14.  "  Gilt-cup." 

15.  ''  Cuckoo-flower." 

16.  "  Herb  of  grace." 

17.  "  Daisy." 

18.  "  Golden  rain." 

19.  "  Celandine." 
II.  Zoological. 

1.  "  Camelopard." 

2.  "  Cerf-volant." 

3.  "  Mariposa." 

4.  ''Stellio." 

5.  "Squirrel." 

6.  "Goldfinch." 

7.  "  Kingfisher." 

8.  "  Golden  knob." 
III.  Rural  dialects. 

1.  "  Merry  dancers." 

2.  "Noah's  ark." 

3.  "  Devil's  snuff-box." 

4.  "  Devil's  darning-needle." 

5.  "  Devil's  coach-horse." 

6.  "  Windhover,"  or  "  Windfanner." 

EXERCISE   No.   IV. 

MISCELLANEOUS      EXAMPLES      OF      POETRY      IN 
WORDS. 

I.  Poetic  legends  in  words. 

1.  "Halcyon." 

2.  "Topaz." 

3.  "  Marien-faden." 

II.  Revival  of  old  life  in  words. 

1.  "  Carbunculus." 

2.  "  Mcre-greot." 

3.  "  Rossignol." 

4.  "Sanglac." 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  93 

5.  "  Mont  de  Pilate." 

6.  "Crocodile." 

III.  Poetry  of  nomenclature. 

1.  "  Dactyle,"  in  Prosody. 

2.  *' Stellionatus,"  in  Latin  Law. 

3.  "  Rose  Window,"  in  Architecture. 

4.  "  Flamboyant,"  in  Architecture. 

5.  "  Godsacre,"  in  Christian  faith. 

IV.  Poetry  of  changed  meanings:  '*Elend." 
V.  Resumi :  Man  a  born  poet. 


QUESTIONS. 

LECTURE   11. 
On  the  Poetry  in  Words. 


What  remark  is  quoted  from  Lecture  L  ? 

Why  do  we  fail  to  recognize  poetry  in  words  ? 

Give  examples  of  poetry  in  names  which  has  escaped  us. 

What  has  Montaigne  said  about  ordinary  language  ? 

What  do  we  read  in  one  of  Moli^re's  comedies  ? 

How  is  this  fact  applied  to  us  ? 

What  is  true  of  the  giving  of  names  ? 

How  is  the  ballad  poetry  of  Spain  characterized  ? 

To  what  also  might  the  same  language  be  applied  ? 

With  what  is  poetry  in  words  compared  ? 

What  is  said  about  popular  language  ? 

Illustrate  with  the  words  *'  pecore  "  and  **  cavalloni." 

Give  the  history  and  use  of  the  word  ''  tribulation." 

What  is  proved  by  the  study  of  such  words  ? 

What  direction  has  Coleridge  given  for  the  proper  study  of 
words  ? 

What  would  be  the  result  of  such  a  method  of  study  ? 

How  is  this  illustrated  in  the  words  "  desultory,"  "capri- 
cious," and  the  verbs  '*  to  strut"  and  **  to  swarm." 

What  is  said  of  poetry  embodied  in  the  names  of  places  ? 

Give  instances  in  which  color  has  suggested  names. 

Give  instances  where  shape  is  incorporated  in  names. 

What  is  said  of  the  word  "  Morca  ?  " 


QUESTIONS.  95 

How  has  this  etymology  been  called  into  question  ? 

How  have  striking  features  of  places  been  embodied  in  names 
by  discoverers  ? 

How  is  this  illustrated  in  the  names  ''Madeira,"  "  Florida," 
and  "Port  Natal"? 

Give  similar  etymologies  from  Milton,  Virgil,  Ovid,  Lucihus, 
and  Propertius? 

Give  miscellaneous  examples  of  poetry  in  the  names  of 
flowers. 

What  does  the  word  "daisy"  suggest?  "  Golden  rain  "  ? 
"Celandine"? 

What  is  said  of  poetry  in  the  names  of  the  animated  world  ? 

How  did  the  "  camelopard  "  get  its  name  ?  "  Cerf- volant"  ? 
"  Mariposa  "  ?  "  Stellio  "  ?  "  Squirrel "  ?  "  Goldfinch  "  ? 
' '  Kingfisher  "  ?     "  Golden  knob  "  ? 

What  is  said  of  poetical  nomenclature  in  country  dialects  ? 

Give  examples. 

What  is  illustrated  by  the  words  "  halcyon,"  "  topaz,"  and 
the  name  "  Marien-faden  "  ?     Give  the  legends. 

What  is  said  of  the  revival  of  old  life  in  words  ? 

Illustrate  with  the  words  "carbuncle"  and  "  Mere-greot," 
"rossignol,"  "sanglac." 

What  is  true  of  the  name  "  Mont  de  Pilate  "  ? 

Give  the  history  and  derivation  of  the  word  "  crocodile." 

What  truth  is  illustrated  by  the  word  "  dactyle,"  and  how  ? 

What  is  the  history  of  the  Latin  word  "  steUionatus  "  ? 

How  is  architecture  defined  ? 

What  exception  is  noticed  in  the  term  "  rose-window." 

What  does  the  word  "  flamboyant  "  illustrate  ?  Give  its  de- 
rivation. - 

What  does  "  God's-acre"  suggest? 

Give  an  example  of  poetry  in  successive  changes  of  meaning. 

What  has  Lecture  II.  led  us  to  acknowledge  ? 

What  does  man  seek  in  language  ? 

Of  what  could  he  not  strip  his  language  ? 

What  effect  have  words  of  passion  and  imagination  on  lan- 
guage ? 


ADDITIONAL   WORDS   FOR   ILLUSTRATION. 

LECTURE   II. 
On  the  Poetry  in  Words. 


1.  Alabama. 

2.  Babelmandeb. 

3.  Beatrice. 

4.  Christopher. 

5.  Cobalt. 

6.  Cockatrice. 

7.  El  Dorado. 

8.  Foxglove. 

9.  Ginseng. 

10.  Gopher. 

11.  Grotesque. 

12.  Holy  Grail. 

13.  Haggard. 

14.  Halo. 

15.  Honey-moon. 

16.  Ichneumon. 

17.  Inflftence. 

18.  Interval. 

19.  Iris. 

20.  Katydid. 


21.  Laureate. 

22.  Lotus. 

23.  Lucifer. 

24.  Mandrake. 

25.  Marigold. 

26.  Meerschaum. 

27.  Minnehaha. 

28.  Nasturtium. 

29.  Petrel. 

30.  Philopena. 

31.  Pine-apple. 

32.  Ribald. 
2S.  Romance. 

34.  Rosary. 

35.  Ruin. 

36.  Salamander. 

37.  Shamrock. 

38.  Sloth. 

39.  Theodore. 

40.  Tulip. 


LECTURE  TIL 

ON  THE   MORALITY   IN   WORDS. 

IS  man  of  a  divine  birth  and  stock  ?  coming  from 
God,  and,  when  he  fulfils  the  law  of  his  being, 
and  the  intention  of  his  creation,  returning  to  Him 
again  ?  We  need  no  more  than  the  words  he  speaks 
to  prove  it ;  so  much  is  there  in  them  which  could 
never  have  existed  on  any  other  supposition.  How 
else  could  all  those  words  which  testify  of  his  relation 
to  God,  and  of  his  consciousness  of  this  relation,  and 
which  ground  themselves  thereon,  have  found  their 
way  into  this,  the  veritable  transcript  of  his  inner- 
most life,  the  genuine  utterance  of  the  faith  and  hope 
which  is  in  him  ?  In  what  other  way  can  we  explain 
that  vast  and  preponderating  weight  thrown  into  the 
scale  of  goodness  and  truth,  which,  despite  of  all  in 
the  other  scale,  we  must  thankfully  acknowledge  that 
language  never  is  without  ?  How  else  shall  we  account 
for  that  sympathy  with  the  right,  that  testimony 
against  the  wrong,  which,  despite  of  all  aberrations 
and  perversions,  is  yet  the  prevaiHng  ground-tone  of 
all? 

But  has  man  fallen,  and  deeply  fallen,  from  the 
heights  of  his  original  creation  ?  We  need  no  more 
than  his  language  to  prove  it.  Like  everything  else 
about  him,  it  bears  at  once  the  stamp  of  his  great- 
ness and  of  his  degradation,  of  his  glory  and  of  his 
•    5 


98  ON   THE   MORALITY   IN   WORDS. 

shame.  What  dark  and  sombre  threaas  he  must 
have  woven  into  the  tissue  of  his  Hfe,  before  we  could 
trace  those  threads  of  darkness  which  run  through 
the  tissue  of  his  language !  What  facts  of  wicked- 
ness and  woe  must  have  existed  in  the  one,  ere  such 
words  could  exist  to  designate  these  as  are  found  in 
the  other !  There  have  never  wanted  those  who 
would  make  light  of  the  hurts  which  man  has  inflicted 
on  himself,  of  the  sickness  with  which  he  is  sick; 
who  would  persuade  themselves  and  others  that  mor- 
alists and  divines,  if  they  have  not  quite  invented, 
have  yet  enormously  exaggerated,  these.  But  are 
statements  of  the  depth  of  his  fall,  the  malignity  of 
the  disease  with  which  he  is  sick,  found  only  in  Scrip- 
ture and  in  sermons  ?  Are  those  who  bring  forward 
these,  libellers  of  human  nature  ?  Or  are  not  mourn- 
ful corroborations  of  the  truth  of  these  imprinted 
deeply  upon  every  province  of  man's  natural  and 
spiritual  life,  and  on  none  more  deeply  than  on  his 
language  ?  It  needs  but  to  open  a  dictionary,  and 
to  cast  our  eye  thoughtfully  down  a  few  columns,  and 
we  shall  find  abundant  confirmation  of  this  sadder 
and  sterner  estimate  of  man's  moral  and  spiritual 
condition.  How  else  shall  we  explain  this  long  cata- 
logue of  words,  having  all  to  do  with  sin  or  with  sor- 
row, or  with  both  ?  How  came  they  there  ?  We 
may  be  quite  sure  that  they  were  not  invented  with- 
out being  needed,  and  they  have  each  a  correlative 
in  the  world  of  realities.  I  open  the  first  letter  of  the 
alphabet;  what  means  this  '  Ah,'  this  *  Alas,'  these 
deep  and  long-drawn  sighs  of  humanity,  which  at 
once  encounter  me  there  ?     And  then  presently  there 


RECORDS   OF  SIN  IN  LANGUAGE.  99 

meet  me  such  words  as  these,  *  Affliction,'  *  Agony,' 
*  Anguish,'  *  Assassin,'  *  Atheist,'  '  Avarice,'  and  a 
hundred  more — words,  you  will  observe,  not  laid  up 
in  the  recesses  of  the  language,  to  be  drawn  forth  on 
rare  occasions,  but  many  of  them  such  as  must  be 
continually  on  the  lips  of  men.  And  indeed,  in  the 
matter  of  abundance,  it  is  sad  to  note  how  much 
richer  our  vocabularies  are  in  words  that  set  forth 
sins,  than  in  those  that  set  forth  graces.  When  St. 
Paul  (Gal.  v.  19-23)  would  put  these  against  those, 
'*the  works  of  the  flesh"  against  "  the  fruit  of  the 
Spirit,"  those  are  seventeen,  these  only  nine  ;  and 
where  do  we  find  in  Scripture  such  lists  of  graces,  as 
we  do  at  2  Tim.  iii.  2,  Rom.  i.  29-31,  of  their  con- 
traries ?  * 

Nor  can  I  help  noting,  in  the  oversight  and  muster 
from  this  point  of  view  of  the  words  which  constitute 
a  language,  the  manner  in  which  its  utmost  resources 
have  been  taxed  to  express  the  infinite  varieties,  now 
of  human  suffering,  now  of  human  sin.  Thus,  what 
a  fearful  thing  is  it  that  any  language  should  possess 
a  word  to  express  the  pleasure  which  men  feel  at  the 
calamities  of  others  ;  for  the  existence  of  the  word 
bears  testimony  to  the  existence  of  the  thing.  And 
yet  such  in  more  languages  than  one  may  be  found.t 


*  Of  these  last  the  most  exhaustive  collection  which  I  know  is  in 
Philo,  De  Merced.  Meret.  §  4,  There  are  here  one  lunidred  and  forty- 
six  epithets  brought  together,  each  of  them  indicating  a  sinful  moral 
habit  of  mind.  It  was  not  without  reason  that  Aristotle  wrote  :  "It 
is  possible  to  err  in  many  ways,  for  evil  belongs  to  the  infinite  ;  but  to 
do  right  is  possible  only  in  one  way  "  [Ethic.  Nic.  ii.  6.  14). 

f  In   the    Greek,   iirixaipeKaKLa,    in  the    German,  'Schadenfreude.' 


100  ON  THE  MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 

Nor  are  there  wanting,  I  suppose,  in  any  language, 
words  which  are  the  mournful  record  of  the  strange 
wickednesses  which  the  genius  of  man,  so  fertile  in 
evil,  has  invented.  What  whole  processes  of  cruelty 
are  sometimes  wrapped  up  in  a  single  word  !  Thus 
I  have  not  gone  down  the  first  column  of  an  Italian 
dictionary  before  I  Hght  upon  the  verb  '  abbacinare,' 
meaning  to  deprive  of  sight  by  holding  a  red-hot 
metal  basin  close  to  the  eye-balls.  Travelling  a  little 
further  in  a  Greek  lexicon,  I  should  reach  aKpwTrjpc- 
d^6Lv,  to  mutilate  by  cutting  off  all  the  extremities, 
as  hands,  feet,  nose,  ears  ;  or  take  our  English  *  to 
ganch.'  And  our  dictionaries,  while  they  tell  us 
much,  cannot  tell  us  all.  How  shamefully  rich  is 
everywhere  the  language  of  the  vulgar  in  words  and 
phrases  which,  seldom  allowed  to  find  their  way  into 
books,  yet  live  as  a  sinful  oral  tradition  on  the  lips  of 
men,  for  the  setting  forth  of  things  unholy  and  im- 
pure. And  of  these  words,  as  no  less  of  those  deal- 
ing with  the  kindred  sins  of  revelling  and  excess,  how 
many  set  the  evil  forth  with  an  evident  sympathy 
and  approbation  of  it,  and  as  taking  part  with  the  sin 
against  Him  who  has  forbidden  it  under  pain  of  his 
highest  displeasure.  How  much  ability,  how  much 
wit,  yes,  and  how  much  imagination  must  have  stood 
in  the  service  of  sin,  before  it  could  possess  a  no- 
menclature so  rich,  so  varied,  and  often  so  heaven- 
defying,  as  that  which  actually  it  owns. 

Then  further  note,  I  beseech  you,  the  many  words 


Cicero  so  strongly  feels  the  want  of  such  a  word,  that  he  gir^es  to 
*  malevolentia '  the  significance  *'  voluptas  ex  malo  alterius,"  which  lies 
not  of  necessity  in  it. 


DEGENERATION   6F  WORDS.  lOI 

which  men  have  dragged  downward  with  themselves, 
and  made  more  or  less  partakers  of  their  own  fall. 
Having  once  an  honorable  significance,  they  have 
yet  with  the  deterioration  and  degeneration  of  those 
that  used  them,  or  of  those  about  whom  they  were 
used,  deteriorated  and  degenerated  too.  How 
many,  harmless  once,  have  assumed  a  harmful  as 
their  secondary  meaning ;  how  many  worthy  have 
acquired  an  unworthy.  Thus  '  knave  '  meant  once 
no  more  than  lad  (nor  does  it  now  in  German  mean 
more) ;  *  villain  '  than  peasant ;  a  '  boor '  was  a 
farmer,  a  *  varlet '  a  serving-man,  which  meaning 
still  survives  in  *  valet,'  the  other  form  of  this  word  ;* 
a  *  menial '  was  one  of  the  *  many  *  or  household,  a 

*  paramour  '  a  lover,  an  honorable  one,  it  might  be  ; 
a  *  minion '  a  favorite  (man  in  Sylvester  is  *  God's 
dearest  minion) ;  a  *  pedant '  was  in  the  Italian  from 
which  we  borrowed  the  word,  and  for  a  while  too 
with  ourselves,  simply  a  tutor ;  a  '  swindler,'  in  Ger- 
man, one  who  entered  into  perilous  mercantile  spec- 
ulations, without  implying  that  this  was  done  with 
any  intention  to  defraud  others.  Christ,  according 
to  Bishop  Hall,  was  the  *  ringleader  '  of  our  salvation. 

*  Time-server  '  two  hundred  years  ago  quite  as  often 
designated  one  in  an  honorable  as  in  a  dishonora- 
ble sense  *  serving  the  time.'t  '  Conceits'  had  once 
nothing  conceited  in  them.  '  To  carp  '  was  in  Chau- 
cer's time  no  more  than  to  converse.     An  *  officious ' 

*  Yet  this  itself  was  an  immense  fall  for  the  word  (see  Ampere,  La 
Langue  Franfaise,  p.  219,  and  Littre,  Did.  de  la  Langue  Fran^aise^ 
preface,  p.  xxv.). 

f  See  in  proof  Fuller,  Holy  Siaie,  b.  iii.  c.  19. 


102  ON  THE  MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 

man  was  one  prompt  in  offices  of  kindness,  and  not, 
as  now,  an  uninvited  meddler  in  things  that  concern 
him  not.  Something  indeed  of  the  old  meaning  still 
survives  in  the  diplomatic  use  of  the  word.  *  De- 
mure '  conveyed  no  hint,  as  it  does  now,  of  an  over- 
doing of  the  outward  demonstrations  of  modesty. 
In  *  crafty  '  and  *  cunning  '  no  crooked  wisdom  was 
implied,  but  only  knowledge  and  skill  ;  *  craft,'  in- 
deed, still  retains  very  often  its  more  honorable  use, 
a  man's  *  craft '  being  his  skill,  and  then  the  trade  in 
which  he  is  skilled.  '  Artful '  was  skilful,  and  not 
tricky  as  now.  Could  the  Magdalen  have  ever  given 
us  *  Maudlin  '  in  its  present  contemptuous  applica- 
tion, if  the  tears  of  penitential  sorrow  had  been  held 
in  due  honor  by  the  world  ?  '  Tinsel,'  the  French 
'  etincelle,'  meant  once  anything  that  sparkled  or 
glistened  ;  thus,  '  cloth  of  tinsel '  would  be  cloth  in- 
wrought with  silver  and  gold ;  but  the  sad  experi- 
ence that  *  all  is  not  gold  that  glitters,'  that  much 
which  shows  fair  to  the  eye  is  worthless  in  reality, 
has  caused  that  by  *  tinsel,'  literal  or  figurative,  we 
ever  mean  now  that  which  has  no  realities  of  sterling 
worth  underlying  the  specious  shows  which  it  makes. 
*  Specious  '  itself,  let  me  note,  meant  beautiful  at  one 
time,  and  not,  as  now,  presenting  a  deceitful  appear- 
ance of  beauty.  *  Tawdry,'  which  was  an  epithet 
applied  once  to  lace  or  other  finery  bought  at  the  fair 
of  St.  Awdrey  or  St.  Etheldreda,  has  run  through 
the  same  course  :  it  at  one  time  conveyed  no  sugges- 
tion of  vteajt  finery,  or  shabby  splendor,  as  now  it 
does.  *  Voluble  '  was  an  epithet  which  had  nothing 
of  slight  in  it,  meaning  what  *  fluent '  means  now  ; 


RESENT  AND   RETALIATE.  IO3 

*  plausible  '  was  worthy  of  applause  ;  *  lewd  '  no  more 
than  unlearned,  as  the  lay  or  common  people  might 
be  supposed  to  be.* 

A  like  deterioration  through  use  may  be  traced  in 
the  verb  *  to  resent.*  Barrow  could  speak  of  the 
good  man  as  a  faithful  *  resenter '  and  requiter  of  ben- 
efits, of  the  duty  of  testifying  an  affectionate  '  resent- 
ment '  of  our  obligations  to  God.  But  the  memory 
of  benefits  fades  from  us  so  much  more  quickly  than 
that  of  injuries  ;  we  remember  and  revolve  in  our 
minds  so  much  more  predominantly  the  wrongs,  real 
or  imaginary,  men  have  done  us,  than  the  favors  we 
owe  them,  that  'resentment'  has  come  in  our  mod- 
ern English  to  be  confined  exclusively  to  that  deep 
reflective  displeasure  which  men  entertain  against 
those  that  have  done,  or  whom  they  believe  to  have 
done,  them  a  wrong.  And  this  explains  how  it 
comes  to  pass  that  we  do  not  speak  of  the  *  retalia- 
tion '  of  benefits  at  all  so  often  as  the  *  retaliation  '  of 
injuries.  *To  retaliate*  signifies  no  more  than  to 
render  again  as  much  as  we  have  received  ;  but  this 
is  so  much  seldomer  practiced  in  regard  of  benefits 
than  of  wrongs,  that,  '  retaliation,'  though  not  alto- 
gether unused  in  this  worthier  sense,  has  yet,  when 
so  employed,  an   unusual  sound   in  our  ears.      *  To 

*  Having  in  mind  what  'dime,'  connected  with  'dienen,'  *  dienst,' 
commonly  means  now  in  German,  one  ahnost  shrinks  from  observing 
that  it  was  once  a  name  of  honor  which  could  be  and  was  used  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  Mary  (see  Grimm,  Wortcrbiich^  •=,.  v.).  *  Schalk '  in 
like  manner  had  no  evil  subaudition  in  it  at  the  first ;  nor  had  it  ever 
such  during  the  time  that  it  survived  in  English  ;  thus  in  Sir  Gawayne 
and  the  Green  Knight,  the  peerless  Gawayne  is  himself  on  more  than 
one  occasion  a  '  schalk'  (424,  1776). 


I04  ON   THE   MORALITY   IN   WORDS. 

retaliate  '  kindnesses  is  a  language  which  would  not 
now  be  intelligible  to  all.  *  Animosity,'  as  originally 
employed  in  that  later  Latin  which  gave  it  birth,  was 
spiritedness  ;  men  would  speak  of  the  *  animosity '  or 
fiery  courage  of  a  horse.  In  our  early  English  it 
meant  nothing  more  ;  a  divine  of  the  seventeenth 
century  speaks  of '  due  Christian  animosity.*  Activity 
and  vigor  are  still  implied  in  the  word ;  but  now 
only  as  displayed  in  enmity  and  hate.  There  is  a 
Spanish  proverb  which  says,  *'One  foe  is  too  many; 
a  hundred  friends  are  too  few."  The  proverb  and  the 
course  which  this  word  *  animosity  '  has  travelled  may 
be  made  mutually  to  illustrate  one  another.* 

How  mournful  a  witness  for  the  hard  and  unright- 
eous judgments  we  habitually  form  of  one  another 
lies  in  the  word  *  prejudice.'  It  is  itself  absolutely 
neutral,  meaning  no  more  than  a  judgment  formed 
beforehand  ;  which  judgment  may  be  favorable,  or 
may  be  unfavorable.  Yet  so  predominantly  do  we 
form  harsh  unfavorable  judgments  of  others  before 
knowledge  and  experience,  that  a  *  prejudice,'  or 
judgment  before  knowledge  and  not  grounded  on 
evidence,  is  almost  always  taken  in  an  ill  sense ; 
*  prejudicial  *  having  actually  acquired  mischievous 
or  injurious  for  its  secondary  meaning. 

As  these  words  bear  testimony  to  the  siit  of  man, 
so  others  to  his  infirmity,  to  the  limitation  of  human 
faculties  and  human  knowledge,  to  the  truth  of  the 

*  For  quotations  from  our  earlier  authors  in  proof  of  many  of  the 
assertions  made  in  the  few  last  pages,  see  my  Select  Glossary  of  Eng- 
lish Words  used  formerly  in  senses  different  from  their  present  y  4th 
edit.  1873. 


ELEVATION  OF  WORDS.  10$ 

proverb,  *  Humanum  est  errare.'  Thus  *  to  retract' 
means  properly  no  more  than  to  handle  again,  to  re- 
consider. And  yet,  so  certain  are  we  to  find  in  a 
subject  which  we  reconsider,  or  handle  a  second 
time,  that  which  was  at  first  rashly,  imperfectly, 
inaccurately  stated,  which  needs  therefore  to  be 
amended,  modified,  withdrawn,  that  '  to  retract  * 
could  not  tarry  long  in  its  primary  meaning  of  recon- 
sidering ;  but  has  come  to  signify  to  withdraw. 
Thus  the  greatest  Father  of  the  Latin  Church,  wish- 
ing at  the  close  of  his  life  to  amend  whatever  he 
might  then  perceive  in  his  various  pubhshed  works 
incautiously  or  incorrectly  stated,  gave  to  the  book 
in  which  he  carried  out  this  intention  (for  authors 
had  then  no  such  opportunities  as  later  editions  af- 
ford now),  this  very  name  of  *  Retractations '  being 
literally  '  rehandlings,'  but  in  fact,  as  will  be  plain  to 
any  one  turning  to  the  work,  withdrawings  of  various 
statements  by  which  he  was  no  longer  prepared  to 
abide. 

But  urging,  as  I  just  now  did,  the  degeneration  of 
words,  I  should  seriously  err,  if  I  failed  to  remind 
you  that  a  parallel  process  of  purifying  and  ennobling 
has  long  been  going  forward,  most  of  all  through  the 
influences  of  a  Divine  faith  working  in  the  world. 
This,  as  it  has  turned  men  from  evil  to  good,  or  has 
lifted  them  from  a  lower  earthly  goodness  to  a  higher 
heavenly,  so  has  it  in  like  manner  elevated,  purified, 
and  ennobled  a  multitude  of  the  words  which  they 
employ,  until  these,  which  once  expressed  only  an 
earthly  good,  express  now  a  heavenly.  The  Gospel 
5* 


Io6  ON   THE   MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 

of  Christ,  as  it  is  the  redemption  of  man,  so  is  it  in  a 
multitude  of  instances  the  redemption  of  his  word, 
freeing  it  from  the  bondage  of  corruption,  that  it 
should  no  longer  be  subject  to  vanity,  nor  stand  any- 
more in  the  service  of  sin  or  of  the  world,  but  in  the 
service  of  God  and  of  his  truth.  Thus  the  Greek  had 
a  word  for  '  humility ;  '  but  for  him  this  humility 
meant — that  is,  with  rare  exceptions — meanness  of 
spirit.  He  who  brought  in  the  Christian  grace  of 
humility,  did  in  so  doing  rescue  the  term  which  ex- 
pressed it  for  nobler  uses  and  a  far  higher  dignity 
than  hitherto  it  had  attained.  There  were  *  angels  ' 
before  heaven  had  been  opened,  but  these  only 
earthly  messengers  ;  *  martyrs  '  also,  or  witnesses,  but 
these  not  unto  blood,  nor  yet  for  God's  highest  truth  ; 

*  apostles,'  but  sent  of  men  ;  *  evangels,*  but  these 
good  tidings  of  this  world,  and  not  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven;   *  advocates,'  but  not  *  with  the  Father.' 

*  Paradise  '  was  a  word  common  in  slightly  different 
forms  to  almost  all  the  nations  of  the  East ;  but  it 
was  for  them  only  some  royal  park  or  garden  of  de- 
lights ;  till  for  the  Jew  it  was  exalted  to  signify  the 
wondrous  abode  of  our  first  parents  ;  and  higher 
honors  awaited  it  still,  when,  on  the  lips  of  the 
Lord,  it  signified  the  blissful  waiting-place  of  faithful 
departed  souls  (Luke  xxiii.  43)  ;  yea,  the  heavenly 
blessedness  itself  (Rev.  ii.  7).  A  'regeneration,'  or 
palingenesy,  was  not  unknown  to  the  Greeks ;  they 
could  speak  of  the  earth's  '.regeneration  '  in  spring- 
time, of  recollection  as  the  *  regeneration  '  of  knowl- 
edge ;  the  Jewish  historian  could  describe  the  return 
of  his  countrymen  from  the  Babylonian   captivity, 


ATTESTATIONS   TO   GOD'S  TRUTH.  10/ 

and  their  re-establishment  in  their  own  land,  as  the 
'regeneration'  of  the  Jewish  State.  But  still  the 
word,  whether  as  employed  by  Jew  or  Greek,  was  a 
long  way  off  from  that  honor  reserved  for  it  in  the 
Christian  dispensation — namely,  that  it  should  be  the 
vehicle  of  one  of  the  most  blessed  mysteries  of  the 
faith.*  And  many  other  words  in  like  manner  there 
are,  "  fetched  from  the  very  dregs  of  paganism,"  as 
Sanderson  has  it  (he  instances  the  Latin  *  sacrament,' 
the  Greek  *  mystery '),  which  the  Holy  Spirit  has  not 
refused  to  employ  for  the  setting  forth  of  the  glorious 
facts  of  our  redemption  ;  and,  reversing  the  impious 
deeds  of  Belshazzar,  who  profaned  the  sacred  vessels 
of  God's  house  to  sinful  and  idolatrous  uses  (Dan. 
V.  2),  has  consecrated  the  very  idol-vessels  of  Baby- 
lon to  the  service  of  the  sanctuary. 

Let  us  now  proceed  to  contemplate  some  of  the 
attestations  to  God's  truth,  and  then  some  of  the 
playings  into  the  hands  of  the  devil's  falsehood, 
which  lurk  in  words.  And  first,  the  attestations  to 
God's  truth,  the  fallings  in  of  our  words  with  his  un- 
changeable Word  ;  for  these,  as  the  true  uses  of  the 
word,  while  the  other  are  only  its  abuses,  have  a 
prior  claim  to  be  considered. 

Thus,  some  modern  "  false  prophets,"  willing  to  ex- 
plain away  all  such  phenomena  of  the  world  around 
us  as  declare  man  to  be  a  sinful  being,  and  lying 
under  the  consequences  of  sin,  would  fain  have  us  to 
believe  that  pain  is  only^a  subordinate  kind  of  pleas- 
ure, or,  at  worst,  a  sort  of  needful  hedge  and  guar- 

*  See  my  Synonyms  of  the  N.  71  §  18. 


I08  ON   THE   MORALITY   IN   WORDS. 

dian  of  pleasure.  But  a  deeper  feeling  in  the  univer- 
sal heart  of  man  bears  witness  to  quite  another  ex- 
planation of  the  existence  of  pain  in  the  present  econ- 
omy of  the  world — namely,  that  it  is  the  correlative 
of  sin,  that  it  is  piinishinent  ;    and  to  this  the  word 

*  pain,'  so  closely  connected  with  '  poena,'  bears  wit- 
ness. Pain  ts  punishment ;  for  so  the  word,  and  so 
the  conscience  of  every  one  that  is  suffering  it,  de- 
clares. There  are  those  who  will  not  hear  of  great 
pestilences  being  scourges  of  the  sins  of  men  ;  who, 
if  only  they  can  find  out  the  immediate,  imagine  that 
they  have  found  out  the  ultimate,  causes  of  these  ; 
while  yet  these  gainsayers  have  only  to  speak  of  a 
'  plague,'  and  they  implicitly  avouch  the  very  truth 
which   they   have   set   themselves   to    deny ;     for   a 

*  plague'  what  is  it  but  a  stroke  ;  so  called,  because 
that  universal  conscience  of  men  which  is  never  at 
fault,  has  felt  and  thus  confessed  it  to  be  such  ?  For 
here,  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  that  proverb  stands 
fast,  "  Vox  populi,  vox  Dei  "  ;  and  may  be  admitted 
to  the  full  ;    that  is,  if  only  we  keep  in  mind  that  this 

*  people '  is  not  the  populace  either  in  high  place  or 
in  low  ;  and  this  '*  voice  of  the  people  "  no  momentary 
outcry,  but  the  consenting  testimony  of  the  good  and 
wise,  of  those  neither  brutalized  by  ignorance,  nor 
corrupted  by  a  false  cultivation,  in  many  places  and 
in  many  times. 

To  one  who  admits  the  truth  of  this  proverb  it  will 
be  nothing  strange  that  mei^  should  have  agreed  to 
call  him  a  '  miser '  or  miserable,  who  eagerly  scrapes 
together  and  painfully  hoards  the  mammon  of  this 
world.     Here  too  the  moral  instinct  lying  deep  in  all 


TESTIMONY  TO   GREAT  MORAL  TRUTHS.       IO9 

hearts  has  borne  testimony  to  the  tormenting  nature 
of  this  vice,  to  the  gnawing  pains  with  which  even  in 
this  present  time  it  punishes  its  votaries,  to  the  en- 
mity which  there  is  between  it  and  all  joy ;  and  the  man 
who  enslaves  himself  to  his  money  is  proclaimed  in 
our  very  language  to  be  a  *  miser,'  or  miserable  man.* 
Other  words  bear  testimony  to  great  moral  truths. 
St.  James  has,  I  doubt  not,  been  often  charged  with 
exaggeration  for  saying,  **  Whosoever  shall  keep  the 
whole  law,  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty 
of  all"  (ii.  10).  The  charge  is  an  unjust  one.  The 
Romans  said  as  much,  as  often  as  they  used  '  integ- 
ritas  ; '  we  say  the  same  who  have  adopted  integ- 
rity as  a  "part  of  our  ethical  language.  For  what 
is  ^  integrity  '  but  entireness  ;  the  *  integrity  '  of  the 
body  being,  as  Cicero  explains  it,  the  full  possession 
and  the  perfect  soundness  of  all  its  members  ;  and 
moral  '  integrity,'  though  it  cannot  be  predicated  so 
absolutely  of  any  sinful  child  of  Adam,  is  this  same 
entireness  or  completeness  transferred  to  things  high- 
er. '  Integrity '  was  exactly  that  which  Herod  had 
no^  attained,  when  at  the  Baptist's  bidding  he  *'  did 
many  things  gladly"  (Mark  vi.  20),  but  did  not  put 
away  his  brother's  wife  ;  whose  partial  obedience 
therefore  profited  nothing ;  he  had  dropped  one  link 
in  the  golden  chain  of  obedience,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence the  whole  chain  fell  to  the  ground. 

*  *  Misery '  and  *  miserable  '  do  not  any  longer  signify  avarice  and  ava- 
ricious ;  but  these  meanings  they  also  once  possessed  (see  my  Select 
Glossary,  s.  vv.).  In  them  we  once  said,  and  in  *  miser  '  we  still  say, 
in  one  word  what  Seneca  when  he  wrote, — *•  Nulla  avaritia  sine  poena 
est,  quamvis  satis  sit  ipsa pcenarum,'''' — took  a  sentence  to  say. 


no  ON  THE   MORALITY   IN  WORDS. 

It  is  very  noticeable,  and  many  have  noticed,  that 
the  Greek  word  signifying  wickedness  (Trovrjpia) 
comes  of  another  signifying  labor  (irovo^).  How 
well  does  this  agree  with  those  passages  in  Scripture 
which  describe  sinners  as  *'  wearying  themselves  to 
commit  \m<\\\\\,yy'  2J=> '' laboring  in  the  very  fire;" 
*'  the  martyrs  of  the  devil,"  as  South  calls  them,  being 
at  more  pains  to  go  to  hell  than  the  martyrs  of  God 
to  go  to  heaven.  ''  St.  Chrysostom's  eloquence,"  as 
Bishop  Sanderson  has  observed,  "  enlarges  itself  and 
triumphs  in  this  argument  more  frequently  than  in 
almost  any  other  ;  and  he  clears  it  often  and  beyond 
all  exception,  both  by  Scripture  and  reason,  that  the 
life  of  a  wicked  or  worldly  man  is  a  very  drudgery 
infinitely  more  toilsome,  vexatious,  and  unpleasant 
than  a  godly  life  is."  * 

Take  another  witness  of  words  to  a  central  truth 
of  our  faith.  A  deep-lying  connection,  acknowledged 
by  all,  between  sin  and  expiation,  a  profound  con- 
viction that  sin  requires  expiation,  cannot  be  forgiven 
till  an  atonement  has  been  made,  this,  twining  itself 
among  the  very  roots  of  men's  minds,  has  uttered 
itself  in  the  words  which  they  employ.  Nowhere 
has  it  been  traced  more  clearly  than  in  the  relation 
between  '  silnde '  and  *  siihnen,*  the  German  words 
for  *  sin '  and  'to  atone.'  Some,  indeed,  have 
affirmed  this  relation  to  be  merely  fanciful,  one, 
therefore,  on  which  no  conclusion  could  be  grounded. 
But  the  scholar  with  best  right  to  speak  on  the  mat- 
ter, docs,  after  a  full  discussion,  stand  fast  to  this, 

*  Sermons,  London,  167 1,  vol.  ii.  p.  244. 


ASSENTATION.  Ill 

that  the  connection  between  '  siinde  '  and  *  slihnen,' 
though  not  quite  so  close  as  sometimes  assumed,  is 
yet  most  real ;  that  there  thus  lies  in  *  sin  '  the  notion 
of  something  needing  expiation.*  As  the  great  lines 
in  which  the  human  mind  travels  are  still  the  same, 
we  may  recognize  as  confirming  this  conclusion  the 
fact  that  '  piaculum '  is  the  Latin  for  an  enormous 
sin,  or  one  which,  as  suck,  demands  expiation. 

How  deep  an  insight  into  the  failings  of  the  human 
heart  lies  at  the  root  of  many  words  ;  and,  if  only  we 
would  attend  to  them,  what  valuable  warnings  many 
contain  against  subtle  temptations  and  sins  !  Thus, 
all  of  us  have  felt  the  temptation  of  seeking  to  please 
others  by  an  unmanly  assenting  to  their  opinion, 
even  when  our  own  independent  convictions  did  not 
agree  with  theirs.  The  existence  of  such  a  tempta- 
tion, and  the  fact  that  too  many  yield  to  it,  are  both 
declared  in  the  Latin  for  a  flatterer — '  assentator ' — 
that  is,  *  an  assenter  :  *  one  who  has  not  courage  to 
say  No,  when  a  Yes  is  expected  from  him  :  and 
quite  independently  of  the  Latin,  the  German,  in  its 
contemptuous  and  precisely  equivalent  use  of 
*  Jaherr,'  a  *  yea-Lord,'  warns  us  in  like  manner 
against  all  such  unmanly  compliances.  Let  me  note 
that  we  also  once  possessed  *  assentation '  in  the 
sense  of  unworthy  flattering  lip-assent  ;  the  last  ex- 
ample of  it  in  our  dictionaries  is  from  Bishop  Hall : 
**  It  is  a  fearful  presage  of  ruin  when  the  prophets  con 
spire  in  assentation  ;  "  but  it  lived  on  to  a  far  later 
day,  being  found  and  exactly  in  the  same  sense  in 

♦J.Grimm,  T/ieol.  Siud.  u.  Krit.  1839,  p.  747,  sqq. 


112  ON   THE  MORALITY  IN   WORDS. 

Lord  Chesterfield's  Letters  to  his  Son  ;  he  there 
speaks  of  *'  abject  flattery  and  indiscriminate  assenta- 
tion." *     The  word  is  well  worthy  to  be  revived. 

Again,  how  well  it  is  to  have  that  spirit  of  depre- 
ciation, that  eagerness  to  find  spots  and  stains  in  the 
characters  of  the  noblest  and  the  best — who  would 
otherwise  oppress  and  rebuke  us  with  a  goodness  and 
a  greatness  so  immensely  superior  to  ours — met  and 
checked  by  a  word  at  once  so  expressive,  and  so 
little  pleasant  to  take  home  to  ourselves,  as  the 
French  '  denigreur,'  a  '  blackener.'  This  also  has 
fallen  out  of  use  ;  which  is  a  pity,  seeing  that  the 
race  which  it  designates  is  so  far  from  being  extinct. 
Full  too  of  instruction  and  warning  is  our  present  em- 
ployment of  '  libertine.'  A  '  libertine,'  in  earher  use, 
was  a  speculative  free-thinker  in  matters  of  religion 
and  in  the  theory  of  morals.  But  as  by  a  sure  pro- 
cess ix^Q.-thinking  does  and  will  end  in  ixQ.Q.-actiitg,  he 
who  has  cast  off  one  yoke  also  casting  off  the  other, 
so  a  *  libertine '  came  in  two  or  three  generations  to 
signify  a  profligate,  especially  in  relation  to  women, 
a  licentious  and  debauched  person. 

Look  a  little  closely  at  the  word  '  passion.'  We 
sometimes  regard  a  *  passionate  '  man  as  a  man  of 
strong  will,  and  of  real,  though  ungoverned,  energy. 
But  •  passion  '  teaches  us  quite  another  lesson  ;  for 
it,  as  a  very  solemn  use  of  it  declares,  means  properly 
*  suffering  ;  '  and  a  '  passionate  '  man  is  not  one  do- 

*  August  10,  1749.  T'^^  derivation  of  *simagr6e'  (si.m'agr^e),  a  de- 
rivation to  which  French  scholars  give  some  sort  of  allowance,  until  a 
better  is  brought  forward,  makes  the  word  to  run  in  a  curiously  parallel 
line. 


PASSION,    HUMANITIES.  II 3 

ing  something,  but  one  suffering  something  to  be 
done  to  him.  When  then  a  man  or  child  is  '  in  a 
passion,'  this  is  no  outcoming  in  him  of  a  strong  will, 
of  a  real  energy,  but  the  proof  rather  that,  for  the 
time  at  least,  he  is  altogether  wanting  in  these  ;  he  is 
sufferings  not  doing  ;  suffering  his  anger,  or  whatever 
evil  temper  it  may  be,  to  lord  over  him  without  con- 
trol. Let  no  one  then  think  of  *  passion '  as  a  sign  of 
strength.  One  might  with  as  much  justice  conclude 
a  man  strong  because  he  was  often  well  beaten  ;  this 
would  prove  that  a  strong  man  was  putting  forth 
his  strength  on  him,  but  certainly  not  that  he  was 
himself  strong.  The  same  sense  of  *  passion '  and 
feebleness  going  together,  of  the  first  as  born  of  the 
second,  lies,  I  may  remark  by  the  way,  in  the  two- 
fold use  of  '  impotens '  in  the  Latin,  which,  meaning 
first  weak,  means  then  violent,  and  then  weak  and 
violent  together.  For  a  long  time  *  impotent '  and 
*  impotence '  in  English  embodied  the  same  twofold 
meaning. 

Or  meditate  on  the  use  of  *  humanitas,'  and  the 
use  (in  Scotland  at  least)  of  the  'humanities,'  to  des- 
ignate those  studies  which  are  esteemed  the  fittest  for 
training  the  true  humanity  in  every  man.  We  have 
happily  overlived  in  England  the  time  when  it  was 
still  in  debate  among  us  whether  education  were  a 
good  thing  for  every  living  soul  or  not  ;  the  only 
question  which  now  seriously  divides  Englishmen  be- 
ing, in  what  manner  that  mental  and  moral  training, 
which  is  society's  debt  to  each  one  of  its  members, 
may  be  most  effectually  imparted  to  him.  Were  it 
not  so,  did  any  affirm  still  that  it  was  go^d  for  any 


114  ON  THE   MORALITY   IN   WORDS. 

man  to  be  left  with  powers  not  called  out  and 
faculties   untrained,  we  might  appeal   to   this  word 

*  humanitas,'  and  the  use  to  which  the  Roman  put  it, 
in  proof  that  he  at  least  was  not  of  this  mind,  even 
as  now  we  may  not  slight  the  striking  witness  to  the 
truth  herein  contained.  By  *  humanitas  '  he  intended 
the  fullest  and  most  harmonious  culture  of  all  the  hu- 
man faculties  and  powers.  Then,  and  then  only,  man 
was  truly  man,  when  he  received  this  ;  in  so  far  as  he 
did  not  receive  this,  his  '  humanity  '  was  maimed  and 
imperfect ;  he  fell  short  of  his  ideal,  of  that  which  he 
was  created  to  be. 

In  our  use  of  '  talents,'  as  when  we  say  *  a  man  of 
talents '  (not  *  of  talent,'  for  that,  as  we  shall  see 
presently,  is  nonsense,  though  *  of  <3:  talent '  would  be 
allowable),  there  is  a  clear  recognition  of  the  re- 
sponsibilities which  go  along  with  the  possession  of 
intellectual  gifts  and  endowments,  whatsoever  these 
may  be.  We  owe  our  later  use  of  *  talent '  to  the 
parable  (Matt.  xxv.  14),  in  which  talents,  more  and 
fewer  are  committed  to  the  several  servants,  that  they 
may  trade  with  them  in  their  master's  absence,  and 
give  account  of  their  employment  at  his  return. 
Men  may  choose  to  forget  the  ends  for  which  their 

*  talents  *  were  given  them  :  they  may  count  them 
merely  something  which  they  have  gotten  ;  *  they 
may  turn  them  to  selfish  ends  ;  they  may  glorify 
themselves  in  them,  instead  of  glorifying  the  Giver  ; 
they  may  practically  deny  that  they  were  given  at  all ; 


*An  e|is  ,  as  the  heathen  did,  not  a  SaJpTj/io,  as  the  Christian  does : 
see  a  I'emarkable  passage  in  Bishop  Andrewes'  Sermons^  vol.  iii.  p.  384. 


OBLIGATION,   VIRTUE.  II5 

yet  in  this  word,  till  they  can  rid  their  vocabulary  of 
it,  abides  a  continual  memento  that  they  were  so 
given,  or  rather  lent,  and  that  each  man  shall  have  to 
render  an  account  of  their  use. 

Again,  in  *  obHge  '  and  *  obligation,'  as  when  we 
speak  of  *  being  obhged,*  or  of  having  *  received  an 
obligation,'  a  moral  truth  is  asserted — this,  namely, 
that  having  received  a  benefit  or  a  favor  at  the  hands 
of  another,  we  are  thereby  morally  bound  to  show 
ourselves  grateful  for  the  same.  We  cannot  be  un- 
grateful without  denying  not  merely  a  moral  truth, 
but  one  incorporated  in  the  very  language  which  we 
employ.  Thus  South,  in  a  sermon,  Of  the  odious 
Sin  of  Ingratitude,  has  well  asked,  **  If  the  conferring 
of  a  kindness  did  not  bind  the  person  upon  whom  it 
was  conferred  to  the  returns  of  gratitude,  why,  in  the 
universal  dialect  of  the  world,  are  kindnesses  called 
obligations  f  "  * 

Once  more — the  habit  of  calling  a  woman's  chas- 
tity her  *  virtue  '  is  significant.  I  will  not  deny  that 
it  may  spring  in  part  from  a  tendency  which  often 
meets  us  in  language,  to  narrow  the  whole  circle  of 
virtues  to  some  one  upon  which  peculiar  stress  is 
laid  ;  \  but  still,  in  selecting  this  peculiar  one  as  the 
'  virtue  '  of  woman,  there  speaks  out  a  true  sense  that 
this  is  indeed  for  her  the  citadel  of  the  whole  moral 
being,  the  overthrow  of  which  is  for  her  the  over- 
throw of  all  ;    that  it  is  the  keystone   of  the  arch, 

*  Sermons^  London,  1737,  vol.  i.  p.  407. 

f  Thus  in   Jewish  Greek,    4\€7]fj.o(rvu'n   stands   often   for   BiKaioa-it/it 
(Deut.  vi.  25  ;  Ps.  102,  6,  LXX.),  or  almsgiving  for  righteousness. 


Il6  ON  THE  MORALITY  IN   WORDS. 

which   being   withdrawn,  the   whole   collapses    and 
falls. 

Or  consider  all  which  is  witnessed  for  us  in  *  kind/ 
We  speak  of  a  '  kind  '  person,  and  we  speak  of  man- 
*  kind,'  and  perhaps,  if  we  think  about  the  matter  at 
all,  fancy  that  we  are  using  quite  different  words,  or 
the  same  words  in  senses  quite  unconnected.  But 
they  are  connected,  and  by  closest  bonds  ;  a  '  kind  * 
person  is  a  *  kinned  '  person,  one  of  kin  ;  one  who 
acknowledges  his  kinship  with  other  men,  and  acts 
upon  it ;  confesses  that  he  owes  to  them,  as  of  one 
blood  with  himself,  the  debt  of  love.  And  so  man- 
kind  is  ma.nkmned.*  Beautiful  before,  how  much 
more  beautiful  do  *  kind  '  and  *  kindness  '  appear, 
when  we  apprehend  the  root  out  of  which  they  grow, 
and  the  truth  which  they  embody ;  that  they  are  the 
acknowledgment  in  loving  deeds  of  our  kinship  with 
our  brethren  ;  of  the  relationship  which  exists  be- 
tween all  the  members  of  the  human  family,  and  of 
the  obligations  growing  out  of  this. 

But  I  observed  just  now  that  there  are  also  words 
bearing  on  them  the  slime  of  the  serpent's  trail ; 
uses,  too,  of  words  which  imply  moral  perversity — 
not  upon  their  parts  who  employ  them  now  in  their 
acquired  senses,  but  on  theirs  from  whom  little  by 
little  they  received  their  deflection,  and  were  warped 
from  their  original  rectitude.  A  '  prude '  is  now  a 
woman  with  an  over-done  affectation  of  a  modesty 
which  she  does  not  really  feel,  and  betraying  the  ab- 

*  Thus  Hamlet  does  much  more  than  merely  play  on  words  when  he 
calls  his  father's  brother,  who  had  married  his  mother,  **  A  little  more 
than  /.'ift,  and  less  than  kitid.^' 


WORDS   USED    SLIGHTINGLY.  11/ 

sence  of  the  substance  by  this  over-preciseness  and 
niceness  about  the  shadow.  Goodness  must  have 
gone  strangely  out  of  fashion,  the  corruption  of  man- 
ners must  have  been  profound,  before  matters  could 
have  come  to  this  point.  *  Prude,*  a  French  word, 
and  the  feminine  of  *  preux,'  means  properly  virtuous 
or  prudent.  But  where  morals  are  greatly  and  gen- 
erally relaxed,  virtue  is  treated  as  hypocrisy ;  and 
thus,  in  a  dissolute  age,  and  one  incredulous  of  any 
inward  purity,  by  the  *  prude '  or  virtuous  woman  is 
intended  a  sort  of  female  Tartufife,  affecting  a  virtue 
which  it  was  taken  for  granted  none  could  really  pos- 
sess ;  and  the  word  abides,  aproof  of  the  world's  dis- 
belief in  the  realities  of  goodness,  of  its  resolution  to 
treat  them  as  hypocrisies  and  shows. 

Again,  why  should  *  simple  '  be  used  slightingly, 
and  '  simpleton  '  more  slightingly  still  ?  The  '  sim- 
ple '  is  one  properly  of  a  single  fold ;  *  a  Nathanael, 
whom  as  such  Christ  honored  to  the  highest  (John  i. 
47) ;  and,  indeed,  what  honor  can  be  higher  than  to 
have  nothing  double  about  us,  to  be  without  duplici- 
ties or  folds  ?  Even  the  world,  which  despises  '  sim- 
plicity,' does  not  profess  to  admire  *  duplicity,'  or 
double- foldedness.  But  inasmuch  as  it  is  felt  that  a 
man  without  these  folds  will  in  a  world  like  ours 
make  himself  a  prey,  and  as  most  men,  if  obliged  to 
choose  between  deceiving  and  being  deceived,  would 
choose  the  former,  it  has  come  to  pass  that  *  simple,' 
which  in  a  kingdom   of  righteousness  would   be    a 

*  I  have  allowed  this  to  stand  (1876),  and  certainly  it  is  better  to 
find  '  semel  plico  '  in  *  simplex  '  than  *  sine  plica  '  (see  Donaldson, 
Varronianus,  p.  390)  ;  but  perhaps  this  is  all  that  can  be  said. 


Il8  ON  THE  MORALITY   IN  WORDS. 

word  of  highest  honor,  carries  with  it  in  this  world  of 
ours  something  of  contempt.*  Nor  can  we  help  no- 
ting another  involuntary  testimony  borne  by  human 
language  to  human  sin,  I  mean  this, — that  an  idiot, 
or  one  otherwise  deficient  in  intellect,  is  called  an 
*  innocent,'  or  one  who  does  no  hurt ;  this  use  of*  in- 
nocent' assuming  that  to  do  hurt  and  harm  is  the 
chief  employment  to  which  men  turn  their  intellectu- 
al powers,  that  where  they  are  wise,  they  are  often- 
est  wise  to  do  evil. 

Nor  are  these  isolated  examples  of  the  contempt- 
uous employment  of  words  expressive  of  goodness. 
Such  meet  us  on  every  side.  Our  ^  silly  '  is  the  Old- 
English  *  saelig,'  or  blessed.  We  see  it  in  a  transi- 
tion state  in  our  early  poets,  with  whom  '  silly  '  is  an 
affectionate  epithet  which  sheep  obtain  for  their 
harmlessness.  One  among  our  earliest  calls  the  new- 
born Lord  of  Glory  Himself,  **  this  harmless  silly 
babe."  But  *  silly  '  has  gone  through  the  same  pro- 
cess as  *  simple,*  '  innocent,'  and  so  many  other 
words.  The  same  moral  phenomenon  repeats  itself 
continually.  Thus  at  the  first  promulgation  of  the 
Christian  faith,  while  the  name  of  its  Divine  founder 
was  still  strange  to  the  ears  of  the  heathen,  they 
were  wont,  some  in  ignorance,  but  more  of  intention, 
shghtly  to  mispronounce  this  name,  turning  '  Christ- 
us'  into  '  Chrestus '— that  is,  the   benevolent  or  be- 


*Schlecht,'  which  in  modern  German  means  bad,  ^rood  for  noth- 
ing, once  meant  good— good,  that  is,  in  the  sense-  of  rii^lit  or  straight, 
but  has  passed  tlnout^h  the  same  stages  to  the  meaning;  uhicli  it  now 
possesses  ;  '  alhern  '  in  like  manner  (Max  Miiller,  Science  of  Language^ 
2d  series,  p.  274). 


FATALISTIC   USE  OF  WORDS.  IIQ 

nign.  That  they  who  intentionally  did  this  meant 
no  honor  thereby  to  the  Lord  of  Life,  but  the  con- 
trary, is  certain  ;  and  indeed  this  word,  like  *  silly,' 
*  innocent '  '  simple,'  had  already  contracted  a  slight 
tinge  of  contempt,  or  else  there  would  have  been  no 
inducement  to  fasten  it  on  the  Saviour.  The  French 
have  their  *  bonhomie  '  with  the  same  undertone  of 
contempt,  the  Greeks  their  evrjOeia.  Lady  Shiel  tells 
us  of  the  Persians  of  our  own  day,  "  Th-ey  have  odd 
names  for  describing  the  moral  qualities ;  *  Seda- 
kat '  means  sincerity,  honesty,  candor ;  but  when  a 
man  is  said  to  be  possessed  of  '  Sedakat,'  the  mean- 
ing is  that  he  is  a  credulous,  contemptible  simple- 
ton." *  It  is  to  the  honor  of  the  Latin  tongue,  and 
very  characteristic  of  the  best  aspects  of  Roman  Hfe, 
that  *  simplex  '  and  '  simplicitas '  never  acquired  this 
abusive  signification. 

Again,  how  prone  are  we  all  to  ascribe  to  chance 
or  fortune  those  gifts  and  blessings  which  indeed 
come  directly  from  God — to  build  altars  to  For- 
tune rather  than  to  Him  who  is  the  author  of  every 
good  thing  which  we  enjoy.  And  this  faith  of 
men,  that  their  blessings,  even  their  highest,  come  to 
them  by  a  blind  chance,  they  have  incorporated  in  a 
word  ;  for  *  happy  '  and  *  happiness  '  are  connected 
with  'hap,'  which  is  chance  ; — how  unworthy,  then, 
to  express  any  true  felicity,  whose  very  essence  is 
that  it  excludes  hap  or  chance,  that  the  world  neither 
gave  nor  can  take  it  away.t     Against  a  similar  misuse 

*  Life  and  Manners  in  Persia,  p.  247. 

f  The  heathen  with  their  evdaifiouia,  inadequate  as  this  word  must  be 
allowed  to  be,  put  us  here  to  shame. 


120  ON  THE   MORALITY  IN   WORDS. 

of  '  fortunate/  *  unfortunate,'  Wordsworth  very  nobly 
protests,  when  of  one  who,  having  lost  everything 
else,  had  yet  kept  the  truth,  he  exclaims  : 

*'  Call  not  the  royal  Swede  unfortunate^ 
Who  never  did  to  Fortune  bend  the  knee." 

There  are  words  which  reveal  a  wrong  or  insuffi- 
cient aspect  which  men  take  of  their  duties,  or  which 
at  all  events  others  have  taken  before  them  ;  for  it  is 
possible  that  the  mischief  may  have  been  done  long 
ago,  and  those  who  now  use  the  words  may  only 
have  inherited  it  from  others,  not  helped  to  bring  it 
about  themselves.  An  employer  of  labor  advertises 
that  he  wants  so  many  *  hands  ; '  but  this  language 
never  could  have  become  current,  a  man  could  never 
have  thus  shrunk  into  a  '  hand  '  in  the  eyes  of  his 
fellow-men,  unless  this  latter  had  in  good  part  for- 
gotten that,  annexed  to  those  hands  which  he  would 
purchase  to  toil  for  him,  were  also  heads  and  hearts  * 
— a  fact,  by  the  way,  of  which,  if  he  persists  in  forget 
ting  it,  he  may  be  reminded  in  very  unwelcome  ways 
at  the  last.  In  Scripture  there  is  another  not  unfre- 
quent  putting  of  a  part  for  the  whole,  as  when  it  is 
said,  "The  same  day  there  were  added  unto  them 
about  three  thousand  souls  "  (Acts  ii.  41).  '  Hands  ' 
here,  '  souls '  there — the  contrast  may  suggest  some 
profitable  reflections. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  the  immorality  of 

*  A  similar  use  of  o-cijuara  for  slaves  in  Greek  rested  originally  on 
the  same  forgetfulness  of  the  moral  worth  of  every  man.  It  has 
found  its  way  into  the  Septuagint  (Gen.  xxxvi.  6;  2  Mace.  viiL  ii; 
Tob.  X.  10)  J  and  occurs  once  in  the  New  Testament  (Rev.  xviii.  13). 


FAIR   WORDS   FOR   UGLY   THINGS.  121 

words  mainly  displays  itself,  and  in  which  they  work 
their  worst  mischief;  that  is,  when  honorable  names 
are  given  to  dishonorable  things,  when  sin  is  made 
plausible  ;  arrayed,  it  may  be,  in  the  very  colors  of 
goodness,  or,  if  not  so,  yet  in  such  as  go  far  to  con- 
ceal its  own  native  deformity.  ''  The  tongue,"  as  St. 
James  has  said,  *'  is  ^  world  of  iniquity  "  (iii.  7) ;  or, 
as  some  would  render  his  words,  and  they  are  then 
still  more  to  our  purpose,  **  the  ornament  of  iniquity," 
that  which  sets  it  out  in  fair  and  attractive  colors.  I 
cannot  think  these  last-named  expositors  are  right, 
though  it  is  posible  to  find  such  a  meaning  in  the 
words  ;  at  the  same  time  the  connection  of  the  Greek 
for  '  tongue '  with  our  *  gloze,'  *  glossy,'  with  the 
German  '  gleissen,'  to  smooth  over  or  polish,  and 
with  an  obsolete  Greek  word  signifying  the  same,  is 
not  accidental,  but  real ;  even  as  it  points  to  uses 
whereunto  we  may  turn  this  **  besty''  but,  as  it  would 
then  prove,  this  worst  **  member  that  we  have." 

How  much  wholesomer  on  all  accounts  is  it  that 
there  should  be  an  ugly  word  for  an  ugly  thing,  one 
involving  moral  condemnation  and  disgust,  even  at 
the  expense  of  a  little  coarseness,  rather  than  one 
which  plays  fast  and  loose  with  the  eternal  principles 
of  morality,  makes  sin  plausible,  and  shifts  the  di- 
vinely reared  landmarks  of  right  and  wrong,  thus 
bringing  the  user  under  the  woe  of  them  ''  that  call 
evil  good,  and  good  evil,  that  put  darkness  for  light, 
and  light  for  darkness,  that  put  bitter  for  sweet,  and 
sweet  for  bitter"  (Isai.  v.  20).  On  this  text,  and 
with  reference  to  this  very  matter,  South  has  written 
four  of  his  grandest  sermons,  bearing  this  striking 


122  ON  THE  MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 

title,  Of  the  fatal  Imposture  and  Force  of  Words.* 
How  awful,  yea  how  fearful,  is  this  **  imposture  and 
force'*  of  theirs,  leading  men  captive  at  will.  There 
is  an  atmosphere  about  them  which  they  are  ever- 
more diffusing,  a  savor  of  Hfe  or  of  death,  which 
we  insensibly  inhale  at  each  moral  breath  we  draw.f 
*'  Winds  of  the  soul,"  as  we  have  already  heard  them 
called,  they  fill  its  sails,  and  are  continually  impelling 
it  upon  its  course,  to  heaven  or  to  hell. 

Thus  how  different  the  light  in  which  we  shall 
have  learned  to  regard  a  sin,  according  as  we  have 
been  wont  to  designate  it,  and  to  hear  it  designated, 
by  a  word  which  brings  out  it  loathsomeness  and  de- 
formity ;  or  by  one  which  palliates  this  and  conceals  ; 
men,  as  one  said  of  old,  being  wont  for  the  most  part 
to  be  ashamed,  not  of  base  deeds,  but  of  base  names. 
In  Sussex  it  is  never  heard  say  of  a  man  that  he  is 
drunk.  He  may  be  '  tight,'  or  *  primed,'  or  *  crank,' 
or  '  concerned  in  liquor,'  nay,  it  may  even  be  admit- 
ted that  he  had  taken  as  much  liquor  as  was  good 

*  Sermons^  1737,  vol.  ii.  pp.  313  -351 ;  vol.  vi.  pp.  3-120.  Thus 
on  those  who  pleaded  that  their  'honor'  was  engaged,  and  that  there- 
fore they  could  not  go  back  from  this  or  that  sinful  act  : — "  Honor  is 
indeed  a  noble  thing,  aud  therefore  the  word  which  signifies  it  must 
needs  be  very  plausible.  But  as  a  rich  and  glistening  garment  may  be 
cast  over  a  rotten  body,  so  an  illustrious  commanding  word  may  be  put 
upon  a  vile  and  an  ugly  thing — for  words  are  but  the  garments,  the 
loose  garments  of  things,  and  so  may  easily  be  put  off  and  on  according 
to  the  humor  of  him  who  bestows  them.  But  the  body  changes  not, 
though  the  garments  do." 

f  Bacon's  words  have  been  often  quoted,  but  they  will  bear  being 
quoted  once  more :  Credunt  enim  homines  rationem  suam  verbis  impe- 
rare.  Sed  fit  etiam  ut  verba  vim  suam  super  intellectum  rctorqueant  et 
rellectant. 


WORDS   CLOAKS   FOR  SIN.  1 23 

for  him  ;  but  that  he  was  drunk,  oh  never.*  Fair 
words  for  foul  things  are  everywhere  only  too  fre- 
quent ;  as  when  in  Italy,  during  the  period  when 
poisoning  was  rifest,  nobody  was  said  to  be  poi- 
soned ;  it  was  only  that  the  deaths  of  some  had  been 
'assisted'  (aiutata).  Worse  still  are  words  which 
seek  to  turn  the  edge  of  the  divine  threatenings 
against  some  sin  by  a  jest ;  as  when  in  France  a  sub- 
tle poison,  by  which  impatient  heirs  delivered  them- 
selves from  those  who  stood  between  them  and  the 
inheritance  which  they  coveted,  was  called  *  poudre 
de  succession.'  We  might  suppose  beforehand  that 
such  cloaks  for  sin  would  be  only  found  among  peo- 
ple in  an  advanced  state  of  artificial  cultivation. 
But  it  is  not  so.  Captain  Erskine,  who  visited  the 
Fiji  Islands  when  they  were  not  so  well  known  as 
they  are  now,  and  who  gives  some  extraordinary  de- 
tails of  the  extent  to  which  cannibalism  then  pre- 
vailed among  their  inhabitants,  pork  and  human  flesh 
being  their  two  staple  articles  of  food,  relates,  in  his 
deeply  interesting  record  of  his  voyage,  that  natural 
pig  they  called  *  short  pig,'  and  man  dressed  and  pre- 
pared for  food  *  long  pig.'  There  was  doubtless  an 
attempt  here  to  carry  off  with  a  jest  the  revolting 
character  of  the  practice  in  which  they  indulged. 
For  that  they  were  themselves  aware  of  this,  that 
their  consciences  did  bear  witness  against  it,  was  at- 
tested by  their  uniform  desire  to  conceal,  if  possible, 
all  traces  of  the  practice  from  European  eyes. 


*  '  Pransus '  and  •  potus,'    as  every  Latin    scholar    knows,   mean 
much  more  than  they  say. 


124  ON  THE  MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 

But  worst,  perhaps,  of  all  are  names  which  throw 
a  flimsy  veil  of  sentiment  over  some  sin.  What  a 
source,  for  example,  of  mischief  without  end  in  our 
country  parishes  is  the  one  practice  of  calling  a  child 
born  out  of  wedlock  a  *  love-child,'  instead  of  a  bas- 
tard. It  would  be  hard  to  estimate  how  much  it  has 
lowered  the  tone  and  standard  of  morality  among 
us  ;  or  for  how  many  young  women  it  may  have 
helped  to  make  the  downward  way  more  sloping  still. 
How  vigorously  ought  we  to  oppose  ourselves  to  all 
such  immoralities  of  language.  This  opposition,  it 
is  true,  will  never  be  easy  or  pleasant ;  for  many  who 
will  endure  to  commit  a  sin,  will  profoundly  resent 
having  that  sin  called  by  its  right  name.  Pirates,  as 
Aristotle  tells  us,  in  his  time  called  themselves  *  pur- 
veyors.'* The  thieves  in  Shakespeare  are  only  true 
to  human  nature,  when  they  name  themselves  *  St. 
Nicholas'  clerks,'  *  michers,'  *  nuthooks,'  anything,  in 
short,  but  thieves  ;  when  they  claim  for  their  stealing 
that  it  shall  not  be  so  called,  but  only  conveying 
(*'  convey  the  wise  it  call")  ;  the  same  dislike  to  look 
an  ugly  fact  in  the  face  reappearing  among  the 
voters  in  some  of  our  corrupter  boroughs,  who  re- 
ceive, not  bribes — they  are  most  indignant  if  this  is 
imputed  to  them — but '  head-money,'  for  their  votes. 
Shakespeare  indeed  has  said  that  a  rose  by  any  other 
name  would  smell  as  sweet ;  but  there  are  some 
things  which  are  not  roses,  and  which  are  thought  to 
smell  a  great  deal  sweeter^  by  any  other  name  than 
by  their  own.     Thus,  to  deal  again  with  bribes,  call 

*   Rket.,  iii.  2  :  ol  \i)ara\  aurovs  iro/jtarcks  KoXovai  yvy* 


NAMES  WHICH   CONCEAL   SIN.  12 5 

one  of  these  *  palm  oil,'  or  a  *  pot  de  vin,'  and  how 
much  of  its  ugliness  is  gone. 

Coarse  as,  according  to  our  present  usages  of  lan- 
guage, may  be  esteemed  the  words  by  which  our 
plain-speaking  Anglo-Saxon  fathers  were  wont  to 
designate  the  unhappy  women  who  make  a  trade  of 
selling  their  bodies  to  the  lusts  of  men,  yet  how 
much  better  the  truth  which  is  in  them  than  the 
falsehood  of- many  other  titles  by  which  they  have 
been  known — names  which  may  themselves  be  called 
*  whited  sepulchres,'  fair  without,  yet  hiding  so  much 
foul  within  ;  as,  for  instance,  that  in  the  French  lan- 
guage which  ascribes  joy  to  a  life  which  more  surely 
than  any  other  dries  up  all  the  sources  of  gladness 
in  the  heart,  brings  anguish,  astonishment,  blackest 
melancholy  on  all  who  have  addicted  themselves  to 
it.  In  the  same  way  how  much  more  moral  words 
are  the  English  *  sharper  '  and  *  blackleg '  than  the 
French  '  chevalier  d'industrie  :  '  *  and  the  same  holds 
good  of  the  English  equivalent,  coarse  as  it  is,  for 
the  Latin  '  conciliatrix.'  In  this  last  word  we  have 
a  notable  example  of  the  putting  of  sweet  for  bitter, 
of  the  attempt  to  present  a  disgraceful  occupation  on 
an  amiable,  almost  a  sentimental  side,  rather  than  in 
its  own  proper  deformity  and  ugliness,  t 

*  For  the  rise  of  this  phrase,  see  Lemontey,  Louis  XIV.^  p.  43. 

f  This  tendency  of  men  to  throw  the  mantle  of  an  honorable  word 
over  a  dishonorable  thing,  or,  vice  versa,  to  degrade  an  honorable  thing, 
when  they  do  not  love  it,  by  a  dishonorable  appellation,  has  in  Greek 
a  word  to  describe  it,  viroKopiCecreai,  itself  a  word  with  an  interesting 
history  ;  while  the  great  ethical  teachers  of  Greece  frequently  occupy 
themselves  in  detecting  and  denouncing  this  most  mischievous  among  all 
the  impostures  of  words.     Thus,  when  Thucydides  (iii.  82)  would  paint 


126  ON  THE  MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 

Use  and  custom  soon  dim  our  eyes  in  such  matters 
as  these  ;  else  we  should  be  deeply  struck  by  a  fa- 
miliar instance  of  this  falsehood  in  names,  one  which 
perhaps  has  never  struck  us  at  all — I  mean  the  pro- 
fane appropriation  of  *  eau  de  vie  '  (water  of  life),  a 
name  borrowed  from  some  of  the  Saviour's  most  pre- 
cious promises  (John  iv.  14;  Rev.  xxii.  17),  to  a 
drink  which  the  untutored  savage  with  a  truer  in- 
stinct has  named  *  fire-water  ;  '  which,  sad  to  say,  is 
known  in  Tahiti  as  *  British  water  ;  '  and  which  has 
proved  for  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  in  every 
clime,  not  *  water  of  life,'  but  the  fruitful  source  of 
disease,  crime,  and  madness,  bringing  forth  first 
these,  and  when  these  are  finished,  bringing  forth 
death.  There  is  a  blasphemous  irony  in  this  appro- 
priation of  the  language  of  heaven  to  that  which,  not 
indeed  in  its  use,  but  too  frequent  abuse,  is  the  in- 
strument of  hell,  that  is  almost  without  a  parallel.* 

the  fearful  moral  ruin  which  her  great  Civil  War  had  wrought,  he  ad- 
duces this  alteration  of  the  received  vakic  of  words,  this  fitting  of  false 
names  to  everything — names  of  honor  to  the  base,  and  of  baseness  to 
the  honorable — as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  tokens  of  this,  even  as  it 
again  set  forward  the  evil,  of  which  it  had  been  first  the  result. 

*  Milton  in  a  profoundly  instructive  letter,  addressed  by  him  to  one 
of  the  friends  whom  he  made  during  his  Italian  tour,  encourages  him 
in  those  philological  studies  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life  by  such 
words  as  these  :  Neque  enim  qui  sermo,  purusne  an  corruptus,  quneve 
loquendi  proprietas  quotidiana  populo  sit,  parvi  interessc  arbitrandum 
est,  quK  res  Athenis  non  semel  saluti  fuit ;  immo  vero,  quod  Datonis 
sententia  est,  immutato  vestiendi  more  habituque  graves  in  Republica 
motus  mutationesque  portendi,  equidem  potius  collabente  in  vitium 
atque  errorem  loquendi  usu  occasum  ejus  urbis  remque  humilem  et  ob- 
scuram  subsequi  crediderim  :  verba  enim  partim  inscita  et  putida,  par- 
tim  mcndosa  et  pcrperam  prolata,  quid  si  ignavos  et  oscitantes  et  ad 


QUESTION-BEGGING  WORDS.  127 

If  I  wanted  any  further  evidence  of  this,  the  moral 
atmosphere  which  words  diffuse,  I  would  ask  you  to 
observe  how  the  first  thing  men  do,  when  engaged 
in  controversy  with  others,  be  it  in  the  conflict  of  the 
tongue  or  the  pen,  or  of  weapons  more  wounding 
yet,  if  such  there  be,  is  ever  to  assume  some  honor- 
able name  to  themselves,  such  as,  if  possible,  shall 
beg  the  whole  matter  in  dispute,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  affix  on  their  adversaries  a  name  which  shall 
place  them  in  a  ridiculous  or  contemptible,  an  invi- 
dious or  odious  light.*  There  is  a  deep  instinct  in 
men,  deeper  perhaps  than  they  give  any  account  of 
to  themselves,  which  tells  them  how  far  this  will  go  ; 
that  multitudes,  utterly  unable  to  weigh  the  argu- 
ments of  the  case,  will  yet  be  receptive  of  the  influ- 
ences which  these  words  are  evermore,  however  im- 
perceptibly, diflusing.  By  arguments  they  might 
hope  to  gain  over  the  reason  of  a  few,  but  by  help 
of  these  nicknames  they  enlist  what  at  first  are  so 
much  more  potent,  the  prejudices  and  passions  of  the 
many,  on  their  side.  Thus,  when  at  the  breaking 
out  of  our  Civil  War,  the  Parliamentary  party  styled 
themselves  '  The  Godly,'  while  to  the  Royalists  they 
gave  the  title  of 'The  Malignants,*  it  is  certain  that, 
wherever  they  could  procure  entrance  and  allowance 
for  these  terms,  the  question  upon  whose  side  the 
right  lay  was  already  decided.     The  Royalists,  it  is 


servile  quidvis  jam  olim  paratos  incolarum  animos  baud  levi  indicio  de- 
clarant ?  Contra  nullum  unquam  audivimus  imperium,  nullam  civita- 
tem  non  mediocriter  saltern  floruisse,  quamdiu  linguae  sua  gratia,  su- 
usque  cultus  constitit.  Compare  an  interesting  Epistle  (the  114th)  of 
Seneca.  *  See  p.  33. 


128  ON  THE  MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 

true,  made  exactly  the  same  employment  of  question- 
begging  words,  of  words  steeped  quite  as  deeply  in 
the  passions  which  animated  them.  So,  too,  the 
Franciscans,  when  they  nicknamed  the  Dominicans 
*  MacuUsts,*  as  denying,  or  at  all  events  refusing  to 
affirm,  that  the  Blessed  Virgin  was  conceived  with- 
out stain  (sine  macula),  perfectly  knew  that  this 
title  would  do  much  to  put  their  rivals  in  an  odious 
light.  The  copperhead  in  America  is  a  peculiarly  ven- 
omous snake.  Something  effectual  has  been  done 
when  this  name  has  been  fastened,  as  it  has  lately 
been,  by  one  party  in  America  on  its  political  oppo- 
nents. 

Seeing,  then,  that  language  contains  so  faithful  a 
record  of  the  good  and  of  the  evil  which  in  time  past 
have  been  working  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men, 
we  shall  not  err,  if  we  regard  it  as  a  moral  barometer 
indicating  and  permanently  marking  the  rise  or  fall  of 
a  nation's  life.  To  study  a  people's  language  will  be 
to  study  thc7n,  and  to  study  them  at  best  advantage  ; 
there,  where  they  present  themselves  to  us  under 
fewest  disguises,  most  nearly  as  they  are.  Too 
many  have  had  a  hand  in  language,  and  in  bringing 
it  to  the  shape  in  which  we  find  it,  it  is  too  entirely 
the  collective  work  of  the  whole  nation,  the  result  of 
the  united  contributions  of  all,  it  obeys  too  immuta- 
ble laws,  to  allow  any  successful  tampering  with  it, 
any  making  of  it  to  witness  other  than  the  actual  facts 
of  the  case.* 

*  Terrien  Poncel  {Du  Langage^  p.  231)  :  Les  langues  sont  faites  \ 
I'usage  des  peuples  qui  les  phrlent ;  elles  sont  animees  chacune  d'un 
esprit  difTerent,  et  suivent  un  mode  particulier  d'action,  conforme  \  leur 


NATIONAL   MORALS   IN   WORDS.  1 29 

Thus  the  frivolity  of  an  age  or  nation,  its  mockery 
of  itself,  its  inability  to  comprehend  the  true  dignity 
and  meaning  of  life,  the  feebleness  of  its  moral  indig- 
nation against  evil,  all  this  will  find  an  utterance  in 
the  employment  of  solemn  and  earnest  words  in 
senses  comparatively  trivial  or  even  ridiculous.  '  Ge- 
henna,' that  word  of  such  terrible  significance  on  the 
lips  of  our  Lord,  has  in  French  issued  in  *  gene,'  and 
in  this  shape  expresses  no  more  than  a  slight  and 
petty  annoyance.  '  Ennui '  meant  once  something 
very  different  from  what  now  it  means.  Littre  gives 
as  its  original  signification,  "  anguish  of  soul,  caused 
by  the  death  of  persons  beloved,  by  their  absence, 
by  the  shipwreck  of  hopes,  by  any  misfortunes  what- 
ever." *  Honnetete,'  which  should  mean  that  virtue 
of  all  virtues,  honesty,  and  which  did  mean  it  once, 
standing  as  it  does  now  for  external  civility  and  for 
nothing  more,  marks  a  willingness  to  accept  the 
shghter  observances  and  pleasant  courtesies  of  society 
in  the  room  of  deeper  moral  quahties.  *  Verite '  is 
at  this  day  so  worn  out,  has  been  used  so  often  where 
another  and  very  different  word  would  have  been  far 

principe.  "  L'esprit  d'une  nation  et  le  caractere  de  sa  langue,"  a  ecrit 
G.  de  Humboldt,  "  sont  si  intimement  lies  ensemble,  qui  si  I'un  etait 
donne,  I'autre  devrait  pouvoir  s'en  deduire  exactement."  La  langue 
n'est  autre  chose  que  la  manifestation  exterieure  de  l'esprit  des  peuples ; 
leur  langue  est  leur  esprit,  et  leur  esprit  est  leur  langue,  de  telle  sorte 
qu'en  developpant  et  perfectionnant  I'un,  ils  developpent  et  perfection- 
nent  necessairement  I'autre.  And  a  recent  German  writer  has  well 
said,  Die  Sprache,  das  selbstgewebte  Kleid  der  Vorstellung,  in  wel- 
chem  jeder  Faden  wieder  ein  Vorstellung  ist,  kann  uns,  richtigbetrach- 
tet,  offenbaren,  welche  Vorstellungen  die  Grundfaden  bildeten  (Ger- 
ber,  Die  Sprache  ah  Kunst). 
6* 


130  ON  THE  MORALITY   IN   WORDS. 

more  appropriate,  that  a  Frenchman  at  this  present 
who  would  fain  convince  us  of  the  truth  of  his  com- 
munication counts  that  he  can  only  do  so  by  assuring 
us  that  it  is  *  la  vraie  verite.'  Neither  is  it  well  that 
words,  which  ought  to  have  been  reserved  for  the 
highest  mysteries  of  the  spiritual  life,  should  be 
squandered  on  slight  and  secular  objects, — *  spirituel' 
itself  is  an  example  in  point, — or  that  words  imply- 
ing once  the  deepest  moral  guilt,  as  is  the  case  with 
*  perfide,'  'malice,'  *mahn,'  in  French,  should  be 
employed  now  almost  in  honor,  or  at  all  events  in 
jest  and  in  play. 

Often  a  people's  use  of  some  single  word  will 
afford  us  a  deeper  insight  into  their  real  condition, 
their  habits  of  thought  and  feeling,  than  whole  vol- 
umes written  expressly  with  the  intention  of  impart- 
ing this  insight.  Thus  *  idiot,'  a  Greek  word,  is 
abundantly  characteristic  of  Greek  life.  The  '  idiot,* 
or  tStfWT???,  was  originally  the  private  man,  as  contra- 
distinguished from  one  clothed  with  office,  and  taking 
his  share  in  the  management  of  public  affairs.  In 
this  its  primary  sense  it  was  often  used  in  the  English 
of  the  seventeenth  century  ;  as  when  Jeremy  Taylor 
says,  *'  Humility  is  a  duty  in  great  ones,  as  well  as 
in  idiots^  It  came  then  to  signify  a  rude,  ignorant, 
unskilled,  intellectually  unexercised  person,  a  boor  : 
this  derived  or  secondary  sense  bearing  witness  to  a 
•conviction  woven  deep  into  the  Greek  mind  that  con- 
tact with  public  .life  was  indispensable  even  to  the 
right   development   of   the   intellect,*   a   conviction 

*  Hare,  Mission  of  the  Comforter ^  p.  552. 


NATIONAL   CHARACTERISTICS.  131 

which  could  scarcely  have  uttered  itself  with  greater 
clearness  than  it  does  in  this  secondary  use  of  '  idiot.' 
Our  tertiary,  in  which  the  *  idiot '  is  one  deficient  in 
intellect,  not  merely  with  its  powers  unexercised,  is 
but  this  secondary  pushed  a  little  farther.  Once 
more,  how  wonderfully  characteristic  of  the  Greek 
mind  it  is  that  the  language  should  have  one  and  the 
same  word  (/caXo?),  to  express  the  beautiful  and  the 
good — goodness  being  thus  contemplated  as  the  high- 
est beauty  ;  while  over  against  this  stands  another 
word  {al(T^p6s;),  used  now  for  the  ugly,  and  now  for 
the  morally  bad.  Again,  the  innermost  differences 
between  the  Greek  and  the  Hebrew  reveal  themselves 
in  the  several  salutations  of  each,  in  the  *  Rejoice,* 
of  the  first,  as  contrasted  with  the  '  Peace '  of  the 
second.  The  clear,  cheerful,  world-enjoying  temper 
of  the  Greek  embodies  itself  in  the  first  ;  he  could 
desire  nothing  better  or  higher  for  himself,  nor  wish 
it  for  his  friends,  than  to  have  Joy  in  his  Hfe.  But 
the  Hebrew  had  a  deeper  longing  within  him,  and 
one  which  finds  utterance  in  his  *  Peace.'  It  is  not 
hard  to  perceive  why  this  latter  people  should  have 
been  chosen  as  the  first  bearers  of  that  truth  which 
indeed  enables  truly  to  rejoice,  but  only  through  first 
bringing  peace  ;  nor  why  from  them  the  word  of  life 
should  first  go  forth.  It  may  be  urged,  indeed,  that 
these  were  only  forms,  and  such  they  may  have  at 
length  become  ;  as  in  our  '  good-by '  or  '  adieu  '  we 
can  hardly  be  said  now  to  commit  our  friend  to  the 
Divine  protection  ;  yet  still  they  were  not  such  at  the 
first,  nor  would  they  have  held  their  ground,  if  ever 
they  had  become  such  altogether. 


132  ON   THE   MORALITY   IN   WORDS. 

How  much,  again,  will  be  sometimes  involved  in 
the  gradual  disuse  of  one  name,  and  the  coming  up 
of  another  in  its  room.  Thus,  little  as  the  fact,  and 
the  moral  significance  of  the  fact,  may. have  been 
noticed  at  the  time,  what  an  epoch  was  it  in  the 
history  of  the  Papacy,  and  with  what  distinctness 
marking  a  more  thorough  secularizing  of  its  whole 
tone  and  spirit,  when  *  Ecclesia  Romana,'  the 
official  title  by  which  it  was  wont  at  an  earlier 
day  to  designate  itself,  gave  place  to  the  later  title, 
'  Curia  Romana,'  the  Roman  Church  to  the  Roman 
Court  * 

The  modifications  of  meaning  which  a  word  has 
undergone  as  it  had  been  transplanted  from  one  soil 
to  another,  so  that  one  nation  borrowing  it  from 
another,  has  brought  into  it  some  force  foreign  to  it 
before,  has  deepened,  or  extenuated,  or  otherwise 
altered  its  meaning, — this  may  reveal  to  us,  as  per- 
haps nothing  else  would,  fundamental  diversities  of 
character  existing  between  them.  The  word  in  Greek 
exactly  corresponding  to  our  'self-sufficient'  is  one  of 
honor,  and  was  applied  to  men  in  their  praise.  And 
indeed  it  was  the  glory  of  the  heathen  philosophy  to 
teach  man  to  find  his  resources  in  his  own  bosom,  to 
be  thus  sufficient  for  himself  ;  and  seeing  that  a  true 
centre  without  him  and  above  him,  a  centre  in  God, 
had  not  been  revealed  to  him,  it  was  no  shame  for 
him  to  seek  it  there  ;  far  better  this  than  to  have  no 
centre  at  all.  But  the  Gospel  has  taught  us  another 
lesson,   to    find    our   sufficiency    in    God  ;    and    thus 


"  See  on  this  matter  The  Pope  and  the  Council^  by  Janus,  p.  215. 


NATIONAL   DEGENERACY.  133 

'  self-sufficient,'  to  the  Greek  suggesting  no  lack  of 
modesty,  of  humility,  or  of  any  good  thing,  at  once 
suggests  such  to  us.  *  Self-sufficiency '  no  man  de- 
sires now  to.  be  attributed  to  him.  The  word  carries 
for  us  its  own  condemnation  and  its  different  uses 
for  honor  once,  for  reproach  now,  do  in  fact  ground 
themselves  on  the  innermost  differences  between  the 
religious  condition  of  the  world  before  Christ  and 
after. 

It  was  not  well  with  Italy,  she  might  fill  the  world 
wkh  exquisite  specimens  of  her  skill  in  the  arts,  with 
pictures  and  statues  of  rarest  loveliness,  but  all  higher 
national  life  was  wanting  to  her  during  those  centu- 
ries in  which  she  degraded  '  virtuoso,'  or  the  virtuous 
man,  to  signify  one  skilled  in  the  appreciation  of 
painting,  music,  and  sculpture  ;  for  these,  the  orna- 
mental fringe  of  a  nation's  life,  can  never,  without 
loss  of  all  manliness  of  character,  be  its  main  texture 
and  woof — not  to  say  that  excellence  in  them  has 
been  too  often  dissociated  from  all  true  virtue  and 
moral  worth.  The  opposite  exaggeration  of  the 
Romans,  for  whom  '  virtus '  meant  predominantly 
warlike  courage,  the  truest  *  manliness  '  of  men,  was 
more  tolerable  than  this  ;  for  there  is  a  sense  in  which 
a  man's  '  valor  *  is  his  value,  is  the  measure  of  his 
worth  ;  seeing  that  no  virtue  can  exist  unless  men 
have  learned,  in  Milton's  glorious  phrase,  **  to  hate 
the  cowardice  of  doing  wrong."  *  It  could  not  but  be 
morally  ill  with  a  people  among  whom  ^  morbidezza  ' 


*  It  did  not  escape  Plutarch,  poor  Latin  scholar  as  he  was,  that 
*  virtus '  had  far  more  the  sense  of  dvSpela  than  of  aper-fj  {Coriol.  i). 


134  ON  THE  MORALITY   IN   WORDS. 

was  used  as  a  word  of  praise,  expressive  of  a  beauty 
which  claimed  for  this  its  *  sickly  softness  '  to  be  ad- 
mired. There  was  too  sure  a  witness  here  for  the 
decay  of  moral  strength  and  health,  when  these  could 
not  merely  be  disconnected  from  beauty,  but  impH- 
citly  put  in  opposition  to  it.  Nor  less  must  it  have 
fared  ill  with  them,  there  was  little  joy  and  little 
pride  which  they  could  have  felt  in  their  country  at  a 
time  when  *  pellegrino,'  meaning  properly  the  strange 
or  the  foreign,  came  to  be  of  itself  a  word  of  praise, 
and  equivalent  to  beautiful.  Far  better  the  pride 
and  assumption  of  that  ancient  people  who  called  all 
things  and  persons  beyond  their  own  pale,  barba- 
rous and  barbarians  ;  far  better  our  own-*  outlandish,* 
used  with  something  of  the  same  contempt.  There 
may  be  a  certain  intolerance  in  these  ;  yet  this  how 
much  healthier  than  so  far  to  have  fallen  out  of  con- 
ceit with  one's  own  country,  so  far  to  affect  things 
foreign,  that  these  last,  merely  on  the  strength  of  be- 
ing foreign,  commend  themselves  as  beautiful  in  our 
sight.  How  little,  again,  the  Italians,  until  quite 
later  years,  can  have  lived  in  the  spirit  of  their 
ancient  worthies,  or  reverenced  the  most  illustrious 
among  these,  we  may  argue  from  the  fact  that  they 
should  have  been  content  so  far  to  degrade  the  name 
of  one  among  their  noblest,  that  every  glib  and  lo- 
quacious hireling  who  shows  strangers  about  their 
picture-galleries,  palaces,  and  ruins,  is  called  '  cice- 
rone,' or  a  Cicero  !  It  is  unfortunate  that  terms  like 
these,  having  once  grown  up,  are  not  again,  or  are 
not  easily  again,  got  rid  of.  They  remain,  testifying 
to  an  ignoble  past,  and  in  some  sort  helping  to  main- 


ACQUIRED   MEANINGS.  1 35 

tain  it,  long  after  the  temper  that  produced  them  has 
passed  away.* 

Happily  it  is  nearly  impossible  for  us  in  England 
to  understand  the  mingled  scorn,  hatred,  fear,  sus- 
picion, contempt,  which  in  time  past  were  associated 
with  the  word  *  sbirri '  in  Italian.  These  *  sbirri ' 
were  the  humble,  but  with  all  this  the  acknowledged, 
ministers  of  justice ;  while  yet  everything  which  is 
mean  and  false  and  oppressive,  which  can  make  the 
name  of  justice  hateful,  was  implied  in  this  title  of 
theirs,  was  associated  with  their  name.  There  is  no 
surer  sign  of  a  bad,  oppressive  rule,  than  when  the 
titles  of  the  administrators  of  law,  titles  which  should 
be  in  themselves  so  honorable,  thus  acquire  a  hateful 
undertone.  What  a  world  of  oppression,  chicane, 
and  fraud  must  have  found  place,  before  tax-gatherer, 
or  exciseman,  '  pubhcan,'  as  in  our  English  Bible, 
could  be  a  word  steeped  in  uttermost  scorn,  as  alike 
for  Greek  and  Jew  it  was  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
however  unwelcome  the  visits  of  the  one  or  the  inter- 
ference of  the  other  may  be  to  us,  yet  the  sense  of 
the  entire  fairness  and  justice  with  which  their  exac- 
tions are  made,  acquits  these  names  for  us  of  the 
slightest  sense  of  dishonor.  '  Policeman  '  has  no  evil 
subaudition  with  us  ;  though  in  the  last  century, 
when  our  police  was  otherwise  administered  than 
now,  '  catchpole,'  in  Wiclif's  time  quite  an  honorable 
word,  had  acquired  such.  So,  too,  if  at  this  day  any 
accidental  profits  fall  or  *  escheat '  to  the  Crown,  they 

*  See  on  this  matter  Marsh,  On  the  English  Language^  New  York, 
i860,  p.  224. 


136  ON   THE   MORALITY   IN   WORDS. 

are  levied  with  so  much  fairness  and  more  than  fair- 
ness to  the  subject,  that,  were  not  the  thing  aheady 
accompHshed,  '  escheat '  would  never  yield  '  cheat,' 
nor  '  escheator '  '  cheater,*  as,  through  the  extortions 
and  injustices  for  which  these  dues  were  formerly  a 
pretext,  they  actually  have  done. 

It  is  worse,  as  marking  that  a  still  holier  sanctuary 
than  that  of  civil  government  has  become  so  profane 
in  men's  sight,  when  words  which  express  sacred 
functions  and  offices  become  redolent  of  scorn.  How 
thankful  we  may  be  that  in  England  we  have  no 
equivalent  to  the  German  *  Pfaffe,'  which,  identical 
with  '  papa'  and  *  pope,'  and  meaning  at  first  but  a 
priest,  now  carries  with  it  the  insinuation  of  almost 
every  unworthiness  in  the  forms  of  meanness,  servil- 
ity, and  avarice  which  can  render  the  priest's  office 
and  person  base  and  contemptible. 

Much  may  be  learned  by  noting  the  words  which 
nations  have  been  obliged  to  borrow  from  other 
nations,  as  not  having  them  of  home-growth — this  in 
most  cases,  if  not  in  all,  testifying  that  the  thing 
itself  was  not  native,  was  only  an  exotic,  transplanted 
like  the  word  which  indicated  it,  from  a  foreign  soil. 
Thus  it  is  singularly  characteristic  of  the  social  and 
political  Hfe  of  England,  as  distinguished  from  that 
of  the  other  European  nations,  that  to  it  alone  the 
word  *  club  '  belongs  ;  France  and  Germany,  having 
been  alike  unable  to  grow  a  word  of  their  own,  have 
borrowed  ours.  That  England  should  have  been  the 
birthplace  of  *  club  '  is  nothing  wonderful ;  for  these 
voluntary  associations  of  men  for  the  furthering  of 
such  social  or  political  ends  as  arc  near  to  the  hearts 


ABSENCE   OF  WORDS.  13/ 

of  the  associates  could  have  only  had  their  rise  under 
such  favorable  circumstances  as  ours.  In  no  country 
where  there  was  not  extreme  personal  freedom  could 
they  have  sprung  up  ;  and  as  little  in  any  where  men 
did  not  know  how  to  use  this  freedom  with  modera- 
tion and  self-restraint,  could  they  long  have  been  en- 
dured. It  was  comparatively  easy  to  adopt  the 
word ;  but  the  ill  success  of  the  *  club '  itself  every- 
where save  here  where  it  is  native  has  shown  that  it 
was  not  so  easy  to  transplant,  or,  having  transplanted, 
to  acclimatize  the  thing.  While  we  have  lent  this  and 
other  words,  political  and  industrial  for  the  most  part, 
to  the  French  and  Germans,  it  would  not  be  less  in- 
structive, if  time  allowed,  to  trace,  our  corresponding 
obligations  to  them. 

And  scarcely  less  significant  and  instructive  than 
the  presence  of  a  word  in  a  language,  will  be  occa- 
sionally its  absence.  How  curious,  for  instance,  are 
the  conclusions  which  Cicero  in  his  high  Roman 
fashion  draws  from  the  absence  of  any  word  in  the 
Greek  corresponding  to  the  Latin  *  ineptus ;  '  not 
from  this  concluding,  as  we  might  have  anticipated, 
that  the  character  designated  by  the  word  was  want- 
ing, but  rather  that  the  fault  was  so  common,  so  uni- 
versal with  the  Greeks  that  they  failed  to  recognize  it 
as  a  fault  at  all.* 


*De  Orat.  ii,  4,  7 :  Quem  enim  nos  ineptum  vocamus,  is  mihi 
videtur  ab  hoc  nomen  habere  ductum,  quod  non  sit  aptus.  Idque  in 
sermonis  nostri  consuetudine  perlate  patet.  Nam  qui  aut  tempus  quid 
postulet,  non  videt,  aut  plura  loquitur,  aut  se  ostentat,  aut  eorum  qui- 
buscum  est,  vel  dignitatis  vel  commodi  rationem  non  habet,  aut  denique 
in  aliquo  genera  aut  inconcinnus  aut  multus  est,  is  ineptus  esse  dicitur, 


138  ON  THE  MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 

The  petty  spite  which  unhappily  so  often  reigns 
between  nations  dwelling  side  by  side  with  one  an- 
other, as  it  embodies  itself  in  many  shapes,  so  it  finds 
vent  in  the  words  which  they  borrow  from  one  an- 
other, and  the  use  to  which  they  put  them.  Thus 
the  French,  borrowing  *  hablador  '  from  the  Spanish, 
in  which  it  means  simply  a  speaker,  give  it  in  *  hab- 
leur'  the  sense  of  a  braggart;  the  Spaniards  paying 
them  off  in  exactly  their  own  coin,  for  of  *  parleur,' 
which  is  but  a  speaker  in  French,  they  make  *  par- 
lador,'  which  is  pretty  nearly  the  braggart  again. 

But  it  is  time  to  bring  this  lecture  to  an  end. 
These  illustrations,  to  which  it  would  be  easy  to  add 
more,  justify  all  that  has  been  asserted  of  a  moral 
element  existing  in  words  ;  so  that  they  do  not  hold 
themselves  neutral  in  that  great  conflict  between  good 
and  evil,  light  and  darkness,  which  is  dividing  the 
world  ;  that  they  are  not  satisfied  to  be  the  passive 
vehicles,  now  of  the  truth,  and  now  of  falsehood. 
We  see,  on  the  contrary,  that  they  continually  take 
their  side,  are  some  of  them  children  of  light,  others 
children  of  this  world,  or  even  of  darkness  ;  they 
beat  with  the  pulses  of  our  life  ;  they  stir  with  our 
passions  ;  we  clothe  them  with  light ;  we  steep  them 
in  scorn  ;  they  receive  from  us  the  impressions  of  our 
good  and  of  our  evil,  which  again  they  are  most 
active  further  to  propagate  and  diffuse.  Must  we 
not  own  then  that  there  is  a  wondrous  and  mysteri- 

Hoc  vitio  cumulata  est  eruditissima  ilia  GrKCorum  natio.  Itaque  quod 
vim  hujus  mali  Grceci  non  videiit,  ne  nomen  quidem  ei  vitio  imposue- 
runt.  Ut  enim  quoeras  omnia,  quomodo  Gneci  ineptum  appellent,  non 
invenies. 


POTENCY   OF   WORDS.  1 39 

ous  world,  of  which  we  may  hitherto  have  taken  too 
httle  account,  around  us  and  about  us  ?  Is  there  not 
something  very  solemn  and  very  awful  in  wielding 
such  an  instrument  as  this  of  language  is,  so  mighty 
to  wound  or  to  heal,  to  kill  or  to  make  alive  ?  and 
may  not  a  deeper  meaning  than  hitherto  we  have  at- 
tached to  it,  lie  in  that  saying,  "  By  thy  words  thou 
shalt  be  justified,  and  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be 
condemned  "  ? 


140  ON  THE  MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES. 

LECTURE  III. 
ON  THE  MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 


EXERCISE   No.  I. 
INTRODUCTION. 

I.  Proof  of  man's  divine  origin  in  language. 

II.  Proof  of  man's  fall  in  language. 

Examples — 

1.  "Ah"  and* 'Alas." 

2.  "■  Affliction." 

3.  "  Agony." 

4.  "  Anguish." 

5.  "  Assassin." 

6.  ''Atheist." 

7.  "  Avarice." 

8.  St.  Paul's  use  of  words. 

III.  Records  of  sin  in  language. 

1 .  Words  expressive  of  pleasure  in  calamity. 

2.  "Abbacinare." 

3.  "  a/eptriTJ^ptci^ftv." 

4.  "  Toganch." 

5.  Sinful  oral  tradition. 

EXERCISE  No.  II. 
DETERIORATION  OF  WORDS. 

1.  "  Knave." 

2.  "  Villain." 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES. 


Ui 


3. 

^'Boor." 

4. 

''  Varlet." 

5. 

^'  Menial." 

6. 

"  Paramour." 

7. 

'' Minion." 

8. 

'  Pedant." 

9- 

'  Swindler." 

10. 

'  Ringleader." 

II. 

"  Time-server." 

12. 

'  Conceits." 

13- 

'  To  carp." 

14. 

'  Officious." 

15. 

'  Demure." 

16. 

'  Crafty." 

17. 

'  Cunning. 

18.  ' 

'  Craft." 

19- 

''  Artful." 

20. 

'  Magdalen." 

21.  ' 

'  Tinsel." 

22. 

'  Specious." 

23. 

'  Voluble." 

24.  ' 

'  Plausible." 

25.  ' 

'  Lewd." 

26.  ' 

'  To  resent." 

27.  ' 

'  Retaliate." 

28.  ' 

'  Animosity." 

29.  ^ 

'  Prejudice." 

30.  ' 

'  Retract." 

EXERCISE  No.  Hi. 
ELEVATION  OF  WORDS. 


Humility." 

Angels." 

Martyrs." 

Apostles." 

Evangels." 

Advocates." 


142  ON  THE  MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 


7. 

**  Paradise. »- 

8. 

"  Regeneration." 

9- 

"  Sacrament." 

lO. 

*'  Mystery." 

EXERCISE  No. 

IV. 

TESTIMONY  OF  WORDS. 

I.  Attestations  to  God's  truth. 

I. 

"  Pain." 

2. 

"  Plague." 

3- 

"  Voxpopuli,  vox  Deir 

4. 

"  Miser." 

II.  Testimony  to  great  moral  truths. 

1.  "  Integritas." 

2.  '*  irovTjpla," 

III.  Witness  of  words  to  a  central  truth  of  our 

FAITH. 

1.  *'Siind©"and"Siihnen." 

2.  "  Piaculum." 

IV.  Witness  to  failings  of  the  human  heart. 

1.  "  Assentator." 

2.  "  Jaherr." 


EXERCISE  No. 

V. 

MORAL  INTERPRETATIONS. 

I. 

Words  which  convey  moral  instruction 

I. 

**  Blackener." 

2. 

"  Libertine." 

3- 

"  Passion." 

4- 

"  Humanitas." 

5- 

"  Talents." 

6. 

"  Oblige." 

7. 

"  Virtue." 

8. 

"  Kind." 

II. 

Words  which  imply  moral 

perversity. 

I. 

"  Prude." 

BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  I43 

2.  "Simple." 

3.  "Silly." 

4.  "  Christus." 

5.  "  Bonhomie." 

6.  "  ivrjOiia/' 

7.  "Sedakat." 

8.  "Simplex." 

III.  Words  which  reveal  man's  faith  in  chance. 

1.  "Happy." 

2.  "  Fortunate." 

3.  "  Unfortunate." 

4.  "  evdaifiovia," 

IV.  Words  which  reveal  wrong  views  of  duty. 

1.  "Hands." 

2.  "  Souls." 

3.  "  2a)/iara." 

EXERCISE  No.  VI. 
THE  MORALS  OF  NAMES. 

I.  Honorable  names  for  dishonorable  things. 

1.  Reading  of  St.  James  iii.  7.     "  The  tongue." 

2.  "  The  imposture  of  words." 

II.  Words  which  palliate  or  conceal  sin. 

1.  "  Tight,"  "  primed,"  or  "  crank." 

2.  "  Aiutata." 

3.  "  Poudre  de  succession." 

4.  "  Short  pig,"  and  "  long  pig." 

5.  "  Chevalier  d'industrie." 

III.  Words  which  throw  a  veil  of  sentiment  oyer 

sin. 

1.  "Love-child." 

2.  "  Purveyors." 

3.  "St  Nicholas'  clerks." 

4.  "Michers." 

5.  "Nuthooks." 

6.  "  Conveying." 

7.  "  Head-money." 


144  ON  THE  MORALITY   IN   WORDS. 

8.  "Palm  oil." 

9.  "  Pot  de  vin." 

10.  "  Fils  de  joie." 

11.  "  Conciliatrix." 

IV.  Ugly  words  for  ugly  things. 

1.  "Harlot." 

2.  "Sharper." 

3.  "Blackleg." 

V.  Falsehood  in  names. 

1.  "Eaude  vie." 

2.  "  British  water." 

VI.  Question-begging  words. 

1.  "Godly." 

2.  "  Malignants." 

3.  "  Maculists."  » 

4.  "  Copperheads." 


EXERCISE  No.  VII. 

LANGUAGE  A  MORAL  BAROMETER. 

I.  Language   shows   the   frivolity  of  an  age  or 
nation. 

I.  "  cane"  for  "gehenna." 
"  Ennui." 
"  Honnetet^." 
"  Verite." 
"  Spirituel." 
"  Perfide,"  "  malice,"  and  "  malin." 

II.  Language  shows  a  nation's  habits  of  thought 

AND   feeling. 

1.  "  Idiot,  Knkosi  alaxpis." 

2.  "Rejoice." 

3.  "Peace." 

4.  "Good-by"  or  "adieu." 

III.  Disuse  and  displacement  of  names. 

I.  Ecclesia  Romana. 
3.  Curia. 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  145 

IV.  Language  shows  fundamental  differences  be- 
tween NATIONS. 

1.  *' Self-sufficient." 

2.  "Virtuoso." 

3.  "  Virtus''  and  ''  valor." 

4 .  '  *  Morbidezza . ' ' 

5.  "  Pellegrino  "  and  "  outlandish." 

6.  "  Cicerone." 


EXERCISE  No.  VIIL 
MISCELLANEOUS  MORALS. 
I.  Civil  Morals. 

1.  Oppression:   "sbirri." 

2.  Fraud  :  "  publican." 

3.  Abuse  of  authority  :  "  catchpole." 

4.  Extortion  : 

(a.)  "  escheat,"  *'  cheat." 
(d.)  ''  escheator,"  "  cheater." 

II.  Religious  morals  :  "  Pfaffe." 

III.  Morals  of  national  borrowings. 

.  "  Club." 
.  "Hablador." 
3.  *'Parlador." 

IV.  Moral  of  the  want  of  a  word:  **ineptus.** 
V.  Moral  of  the  lecture. 

1 .  Words  are  not  neutral. 

2.  They  are  instinct  with  our  life. 

3.  They  justify  or  condemn  us. 

7 


146  ON  THE  MORALITY  IN  WORDS. 


QUESTIONS. 

LECTURE  III. 
On  the  Morality  in  Words* 


In  what  three  ways  does  language  prove  that  man  is  of  a  di- 
vine birth  ? 

How  does  language  prove  that  he  has  fallen  ? 

What  relation  do  wickedness  and  woe  bear  to  the  words 
which  designate  them  ? 

How  are  these  things  regarded  by  some  ? 

Is  the  proof  all  scriptural  ? 

What  does  an  examination  of  the  dictionary  show  ? 

What  words  are  quoted  ? 

Give  other  illustrations. 

What  is  said  of  the  relative  abundance  of  good  and  bad 
words  ? 

Give  the  scriptural  proofs. 

How  have  the  utmost  resources  of  language  been  taxed  ? 

What  is  said  of  words  which  express  pleasure  at  the  calami- 
ties of  others  ? 

Give  illustrations  of  this. 

What  is  said  of  sinful  oral  traditions  ? 

How  do  such  words  set  forth  evil  ? 

What  is  necessary  before  language  possesses  such  words  ? 

What  is  said  of  the  deterioration  of  words  ? 

Give  examples,  with  the  derivation  and  history  of  each,  as 
far  as  they  can  be  learned. 

How  has  the  verb  "  to  resent"  changed  in  meaning  ? 


QUESTIONS.  147 

Why  do  we  not  speak  of  the  ''  retaliation  "  of  injuries  ? 

Describe  the  changes  in  the  word  "  animosity;" 

What  is  the  word  "  prejudice  "  a  witness  for  ? 

What  does  the  verb  "  to  retract "  bear  testimony  to  ? 

What  instance  of  its  old  use  is  given  ? 

What  has  been  the  influence  of  Divine  faith  on  words  ? 

How  was  the  Greek  word  for  **  humility  "  elevated  ? 

Give  other  similar  examples,  with  the  derivation  of  each. 

How  has  the  Holy  Spirit  employed  heathen  words  ?  Give 
instances. 

What  are  the  true  uses  of  words  ? 

What  would  modern  "  fals»  prophets  "  have  us  believe  ? 

What  does  a  deeper  feeling  in  the  heart  of  man  bear  witness 
to? 

What  does  the  word  "  pain  "  prove  ? 

What  use  is  made  of  the  word  "  plague  "  ?  Of  the  proverb, 
"  Vox  populi,  vox  Dei"  ? 

What  moral  testimony  do  we  find  in  the  word  "  miser  "  ? 

What  charge  is  made  against  St.  James  ?  How  did  the  Ro- 
mans say  as  much?  How  do  we  use  ''integrity"?  Quote 
Mark  vi.  20. 

What  is  said  of  the  Greek  word  signifying  wickedness  ? 
Who  are  quoted  in  this  connection  ? 

Give  an  example  of  the  witness  of  words  to  central  religious 
truths  ? 

How  is  this  confirmed  in  the  Latin  "  piaculum  "  ? 

Give  an  example  of  a  word  giving  an  insight  into  the  failings 
of  the  heart. 

What  was  the  old  use  of"  assentation  "  ? 

Give  an  example  of  a  word  used  to  check  the  spirit  of  depre- 
ciation. 

What  has  been  the  history  of  the  word  "  libertine  "  ?  Give 
its  derivation. 

What  do  we  learn  from  the  word  "passion"?  "  Impo- 
tent "  ? 

What  is  "  humanitas  "  used  to  designate  ? 

What  question  divides  Englishmen  ? 


148  ON  THE  MORALITY   IN   WORDS. 

How  is  "  humanitas  "  appealed  to  ? 

How  is  our  word  ''talents"  used?  Give  its  derivation. 
What  does  it  prove  ? 

What  moral  truth  do  we  find  in  ''  oblige  "  and  "  obligation  "  ? 

How  is  South  quoted  ? 

How  is  the  habit  of  calling  a  woman's  chastity  her  ''  virtue  " 
significant  ? 

What  is  witnessed  in  the  word  ''  kind  "  ?  ''  mankind  "  ? 

What  does  ''  prude  "  illustrate  ?     Account  for  its  present  use. 

What  do  we  learn  from  "simple"  and  "innocent"? 
"schlecht"?  "albern"? 

Give  the  history  of  "  silly,«  "  Christus,"  "bonhomie," 
"  ev^Seta,"  "  sedakat,"  "  simplex." 

What  does  "  happy  "  prove  ? 

What  is  illustrated  by  "  hands  "  and  "  souls"  ?  "  aw/Mira"  ? 

How  do  words  work  their  worst  mischief? 

What  is  said  of  the  reading  of  St.  James  iii.  7  ? 

What  is  said  of  fair  words  for  ugly  things  ? 

What  of  the  imposture  of  words  ? 

Give  examples  of  words  which  conceal  sin  among  civilized 
people. 

What  does  Captain  Erskine  testify  ? 

What  does  "  love-child  "  illustrate  ? 

By  what  names  are  thieves  called  in  Shakespeare  ? 

How  is  "  head-money  "  used  ?  "  palm-oil"  ?  "  pot  de  vin  "  ? 

What  kind  of  names  are  "  whited  sepulchres  "  ? 

Give  examples  of  better  moral  words. 

Give  instances  of  falsehood  in  words. 

What  is  said  of  question-begging  words  ?     Give  examples. 

How  is  language  a  moral  barometer  ? 

Mention  words  which  testify  to  the  frivolity  of  an  age  or  nation. 

How  do  words  give  us  an  insight  of  a  people's  habits  of 
thought  and  feeling  ? 

Give  the  history  of  "  idiot." 

What  do  the  "  rejoice"  of  the  Greeks  and  the  "  peace"  of 
the  Hebrews  show  ? 

Give  an  example  of  the  gradual  disuse  of  a  name. 


QUESTIONS. 


149 


What  is  illustrated  by  the  word  in  Greek  for  "  self-suf- 
ficient "  ? 

What  do  we  learn  from  "  virtuoso  "  and  "  virtus  "  }  "  mor- 
bidezza"  ?  "  pellegrino  "  ?  ''  cicerone  "  ?  "  sbirri "  ?  "  publi- 
can"? "catchpole"?  "escheat"?  "pfaffe"? 

What  is  said  of  transplanted  words  ?     Illustrate  by  "  club." 

What  is  said  of  the  absence  of  a  word  from  a  language  ? 
Give  an  example. 

How  do  words  embody  national  spites  ?     Give  examples. 

What  is  the  moral  of  the  lecture  ? 

ADDITIONAL  WORDS  FOR  ILLUSTRATION. 


LECTURE  III. 
On  the  Morality  in  Words. 


1.  Askance. 

2.  Autograph. 

3.  Blackguard. 

4.  Compassion. 

5.  Eucharist. 

6.  Fulsome. 

7.  Gaudy. 

8.  Gentleman. 

9.  Gushing. 

10.  Hale, 

11.  Harangue. 

12.  Harbinger. 

13.  Heresy. 

14.  Hoax. 

15.  Hobby. 

16.  Humbug. 

17.  Hypocrisy. 

18.  Imp. 

19.  Inert. 

20.  Jade. 

21.  Jealous. 

22.  Jeopardy. 


23.  Jesuitical. 

24.  Lackey. 

25.  Lady. 

26.  Lampoon. 

27.  Leer. 

28.  Libel 

29.  Lyceum. 

30.  Massacre. 

31.  Minister. 

32.  Monster. 

33.  Moody. 

34.  Obsequious, 

35.  Ostracism. 

36.  Pragmatic. 

37.  Revolution. 

38.  Sad. 

39.  Satan. 

40.  Scandal. 

41.  Shrew. 

42.  Traitor. 

43.  Whiskey. 

44.  Zealot. 


LECTUEE   IV. 

ON  THE   HISTORY   IN  WORDS. 

LANGUAGE,  which  is  ever  in  flux  and  flow, 
which  among  nations  that  have  not  invented  or 
adopted  letters,  exists  Qnly  for  the  ear  and  as  a  sound, 
we  might  beforehand  have  assumed  would  prove  the 
frailest,  the  most  untrustworthy,  of  all  vehicles  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  past ;  that  one  which  would  most 
certainly  betray  its  charge.  So  far,  however,  from 
this  being  the  fact,  it  is  the  main,  oftentimes  the  only, 
connecting  Hnk  between  that  past  and  our  present ; 
it  is  oftentimes  an  ark  riding  above  the  water-floods 
that  have  swept  away  or  submerged  every  other 
landmark  and  memorial  of  bygone  ages  and  vanished 
generations  of  men.  Far  beyond  all  written  records 
in  a  language,  the  language  itself  stretches  back,  and 
offers  itself  for  our  investigation — *  the  pedigree  of 
nations,'  as  Johnson  calls  it  * — itself  a  far  older  and 
at  the  same  time  a  far  more  instructive  monument 
and  document  than  any  book,  inscription,  or  other 

*  This  statement  of  his  must  be  taken  with  a  certain  amount  of 
qualification.  It  is  not  always  that  races  are  true  to  the  end  to  their 
language  ;  external  forces  are  sometimes  too  strong.  Thus  Celtic  dis- 
appeared before  Latin  in  Gaul  and  Spain,  Slavonic  became  extinct  in 
Prussia  two  centuries  ago,  German  taking  its  room ;  the  negroes  of 
Hayti  speak  French,  and  various  American  tribes  have  exchanged  their 
own  idioms  for  Spanish  and  Portuguese.  See  upon  this  matter  Sayce's 
Principles  of  ComJ>arative  Philology^  Y9'  175-181. 


CONSANGUINITY  OF  LANGUAGES.  151 

writing  which  employs  it.  The  written  records  may 
have  been  falsified  by  carelessness,  by  vanity,  by 
fraud,  by  a  multitude  of  causes  ;  but  language  never 
deceives  us,  if  only  we  know  how  to  question  it 
aright. 

What  a  voice  and  testimony  it  has  on  a  question 
perhaps  the  most  deeply  interesting  of  all.  Some, 
as  you  are  aware,  on  one  ground  or  another  deny 
the  accuracy  of  the  Scripture  statement  that  the 
whole  earth  was  peopled  from  a  single  pair;  urge,  on 
the  contrary,  that  there  must  have  been  many  begin- 
nings, many  original  centres  of  human  population. 
Dr.  Prichard  and  others  have  shown  that  Science, 
quite  independent  of  Revelation,  though  unable  to 
prove,  yet  decisively  points  to,  a  physical  unity  of 
the  human  race.  But  this  is  not  all.  There  is  much 
to  lead  us  to  anticipate  that  a  stronger  evidence  and 
a  moral  argument  for  the  unity  of  mankind  more 
convincing  yet,  will  some  day  be  forthcoming.  We 
have  seen  in  our  own  time  the  consanguinity  plainly 
traced  and  by  all  admitted,  of  families  of  languages 
which  not  many  years  ago  were  esteemed  to  have 
absolutely  no  connection  with  one  another ;  and 
while  very  much  remains  still  to  be  done,  yet  as- 
suredly the  tendency  of  all  later  investigations  into 
languages  and  their  relations,  is  more  and  more  to 
refer  them  to  a  common  stock  and  single  fountain- 
head. 

Such  investigations  as  these,  it  is  true,  lie  plainly 
out  of  your  sphere.  Not  so,  however,  those  hum- 
bler yet  not  less  interesting  inquiries,  which  by  the 
aid  of  any  tolerable  dictionary  you  may  carry  on  into 


152  ON  THE   HISTORY   IN  WORDS. 

the  past  history  of  your  own  land,  as  attested  by 
the  present  language  of  its  people.  You  know  how 
the  geologist  is  able  from  the  different  strata  and 
deposits,  primary,  secondary,  or  tertiary,  succeeding 
one  another,  which  he  meets,  to  arrive  at  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  successive  physical  changes  through  which 
a  region  has  passed  ;  is  in  a  condition  to  preside  at 
those  changes,  to  measure  the  forces  which  were  at 
work  to  produce  them,  and  almost  to  indicate  their 
date.  Now  with  such  a  language  as  the  English  be- 
fore us,  bearing  as  it  does  the  marks  and  footprints 
of  great  revolutions  profoundly  impressed  upon  it, 
we  may  carry  on  moral  and  historical  researches  pre- 
cisely analogous  to  his.  Here  too  are  strata  and  de- 
posits, not  of  gravel  and  chalk,  sandstone  and  lime- 
stone, but  of  Celtic,  Latin,  Low  German,  Danish, 
Norman  words,  and  then  once  more  Latin  and 
French,  with  slighter  intrusions  from  other  quarters  : 
and  anyone  with  skill  to  analyse  the  language  might 
re-create  for  himself  the  history  of  the  people  speak- 
ing that  language,  might  with  tolerable  accuracy 
appreciate  the  divers  elements  out  of  which  that 
people  was  composed,  in  what  proportion  these  were 
mingled,  and  in  what  succession  they  followed,  one 
upon  the  other. 

He  would  trace,  for  example,  the  relation  in  which 
the  English  and  Norman  occupants  of  this  land  stood 
to  one  another.  An  account  of  this,  in  the  main  as 
accurate  as  it  would  be  certainly  instructive,  might  be 
drawn  from  an  intelligent  study  of  the  contributions 
which  they  have  severally  made  to  the  English  lan- 
guage, as  bequeathed  to  us  jointly  by  them  both. 


SAXON  AND   NORMAN  RELATIONS.  1 53 

Supposing  all  other  records  to  have  perished,  we 
might  still  work  out  and  almost  reconstruct  the  histo- 
ry by  these  aids  ;  even  as  now,  when  so  many  docu- 
ments, so  many  institutions  survive,  this  must  still  be 
accounted  the  most  important,  and  that  of  which  the 
study  will  introduce  us,  as  no  other  can,  into  the  in- 
nermost heart  and  life  of  large  periods  of  our  history. 
Nor,  indeed,  is  it  hard  to  see  why  the  language 
must  contain  such  instruction  as  this,  when  we  a  little 
realize  to  ourselves  the  stages  by  which  it  has  come 
down  to  us  in  its  present  shape.  There  was  a  time 
when  the  languages  which  the  English  and  the  Nor- 
man severally  spoke,  existed  each  by  the  side  of,  but 
unmingled  with  the  other  ;  one,  that  of  the  small 
dominant  class,  the  other  that  of  the  great  body  of 
the  people.  By  degrees,  however,  with  the  reconcil- 
iation and  partial  fusion  of  the  two  races,  the  two 
languages  effected  a  transaction  ;  one  indeed  pre- 
vailed over  the  other,  but  at  the  same  time  received  a 
multitude  of  the  words  of  that  other  into  its  own 
bosom.  At  once  there  would  exist  duplicates  for 
many  things.  But  as  in  popular  speech  two  words 
will  not  long  exist  side  by  side  to  designate  the 
same  thing,  it  became  a  question  how  the  relative 
claims  of  the  English  and  French  word  should  adjust 
themselves,  which  should  remain,  which  should  be 
dropped  ;  or,  if  not  dropped,  should  be  transferred 
to  some  other  object,  or  express  some  other  relation. 
It  is  not  of  course  meant  that  this  was  ever  formally 
proposed,  or  as  something  to  be  settled  by  agree- 
ment ;  but  practically  one  was  to  be  taken  and  one 
left.  Which  was  it  that  should  maintain  its  ground  ? 
7* 


154  ON  THE  HISTORY   IN  WORDS. 

Evidently,  where  a  word  was  often  on  the  lips  of  one 
race,  its  equivalent  seldom  on  those  of  the  other, 
where  it  intimately  cohered  with  the  manner  of  life  of 
one,  was  only  remotely  in  contact  with  that  of  the 
other,  where  it  laid  strong  hold  on  one,  and  only 
slight  on  the  other,  the  issue  could  not  be  doubtful. 
In  several  cases  the  matter  was  simpler  still :  it  was 
not  that  one  word  expelled  the  other,  or  that  rival 
claims  had  to  be  adjusted  ;  but  that  there  never  had 
existed  more  than  one  word,  the  thing  which  that 
word  noted  having  been  quite  strange  to  the  other 
section  of  the  nation. 

Here  is  the  explanation  of  the  assertion  made  just 
now — namely,  that  we  might  almost  reconstruct  our 
history,  so  far  as  it  turns  upon  the  Norman  Conquest, 
by  an  analysis  of  our  present  language,  a  mustering 
of  its  words  in  groups,  and  a  close  observation  of  the 
nature  and  character  of  those  which  the  two  races 
have  severally  contributed  to  it.  Thus  we  should 
confidently  conclude  that  the  Norman  was  the  ruling 
race,  from  the  noticeable  fact  that  all  the  words  of 
dignity,  state,  honor,  and  pre-eminence,  with  one 
remarkable  exception  (to  be  adduced  presently),  de- 
scend   to     us    from    them — *  sovereign,'     '  sceptre,* 

*  throne,'    *  realm,'    'royalty,'    'homage,'     'prince,' 

*  duke,'  '  count,'  ('  earl '  indeed  is  Scandinavian, 
though  he  must  borrow  his  '  countess  '  from  the  Nor- 
man), '  chancellor,'  '  treasurer,'  '  palace,'  *  castle,' 
*hall,'  '  dome,'  and  a  multitude  more.  At  the  same 
time  the  one  remarkable  exception  of  '  king  '  would 
make  us,  even  did  we  know  nothing  of  the  actual 
facts,  suspect  that  the  chieftain  of  this  ruling   race 


SAXON   AND   NORMAN   WORDS.  15$ 

came  in  not  upon  a  new  title,  not  as  overthrowing  a 
former  dynasty,  but  claiming  to  be  in  the  rightful 
line  of  its  succession  ;  that  the  true  continuity  of  the 
nation  had  not,  in  fact  any  more  than  in  word,  been 
entirely  broken,  but  survived,  in  due  time  to  assert 
itself  anew. 

And  yet,  while  the  statelier  superstructure  of  the 
language,  almost  all  articles  of  luxury,  all  having  to 
do  with  the  chase,  with  chivalry,  with  personal  adorn- 
ment, are  Norman  throughout ;  with  the  broad  basis 
of  the  language,  and  therefore  of  the  life,  it  is  other- 
wise. The  great  features  of  nature,  sun,  moon,  and 
stars,  earth,  water,  and  fire  ;  the  divisions  of  time  ; 
three  out  of  the  four  seasons,  spring,  summer,  and 
winter;  the  features  of  natural  scenery,  the  words 
used  in  earliest  childhood,  the  simpler  emotions  of 
the  mind ;  all  the  prime  social  relations,  father, 
mother,  husband,  wife,  son,  daughter,  brother,  sister, 
— these  are  of  native  growth  and  unborrowed.  *  Pal- 
ace '  and  *  castle  '  may  have  reached  us  from  the  Nor- 
man, but  to  the  Saxon  we  owe  far  dearer  names,  the 

*  house,'  the  'roof,'  the  'home,' the  *  hearth.*  His 
'  board '  too,  and  often  probably  it  was  no  more, 
has  a  more  hospitable  sound  than  the  '  table  '  of  his 
lord.  His  sturdy  arms  turn  the  soil  ;  he  is  the 
'  boor,'  the  '  hind,'  the  *  churl '  ;  or  if  this  Norman 
master  has  a  name  for  him,  it  is  one  which  on  his  lips 
becomes  more  and  more  a  title  of  opprobrium  and 
contempt,  the  *  villain.'  The  instruments  used  in 
cultivating  the  earth,  the  *  flail,'  the  '  plough,'   the 

*  share,'  the  *  rake,'  the  '  scythe,'  the  '  harrow,'  the 

*  wain,'   the   'sickle,'   the   *  spade,'' are  expressed  in 


156  ON  THE   HISTORY   IN   WORDS. 

his  language  ;  so  too  the  main  products  of  the  earth, 
as  wheat,  rye,  oats,  here,  grass,  flax,  hay,  straw, 
weeds  ;  and  no  less  the  names  of  domestic  animals. 
You  will  remember  no  doubt  how  in  the  matter  of 
these  Wamba,  the  Saxon  jester  in  Ivaiihoe  plays  the 
philologer,*  having  noted  that  the  names  of  almost 
all  animals,  so  long  as  they  are  ahve,  are  Saxon,  but 
when  dressed  and  prepared  for  food  become  Norman 
— a  fact,  he  would  intimate,  not  very  wonderful  ;  for 
the  Saxon  hind  had  the  charge  and  labor  of  tending 
and  feeding  them,  but  only  that  they  might  appear 
on   the    table    of    his   Norman   lord.       Thus     '  ox,' 

*  steer,'  *  cow,'  are  Saxon,  but  'beef  Norman; 
'calf'  is  Saxon,  but  'veal'  Norman;  'sheep'  is 
Saxon,  but  '  mutton  '  Norman :  so  it  is  severally 
with    *  swine  '    and    '  pork,'    '  deer  '    and    '  venison,' 

*  fowl'  and  '  pullet.'  '  Bacon,'  the  only  flesh  which 
perhaps  ever  came  within  his  reach,  is  the  single  ex- 
ception. Putting  all  this  together,  with  much  more 
of  the  same  kind,  which  has  only  been  indicated  here, 
we  should  certainly  gather,  that  while  there  are  mani- 
fest tokens  preserved  in  our  language,  of  the  Saxon 
having  been  for  a  reason  an  inferior  and  even  an  op- 
pressed race,  the  stable  elements  of  English  life,  how- 
ever overlaid  for  a  while,  has  still  made  good  their 
claim  to  be  the  solid  groundwork  of  the  after  nation  as 
of  the  after  language  ;  and  to  the  justice  of  this  conclu- 
sion all  other  historic  records,  and  the  present  social 
condition  of  England,  consent  in  bearing  witness. f 

*  Wallis,  in  his  Grammar^  p  20,  had  done  so  before. 
\  Compare  Donaldson,  New  CratyluSy  3rd  edition,  p.  17  ;  and  Morris, 
English  Accidence^  pp.  35-38. 


LANGUAGE  THE   OLDEST  HISTORY.  15/ 

Then  again,  who  could  doubt,  even  if  the  fact 
were  not  historically  attested,  that  the  Arabs  were 
the  arithmeticians,  the  astronomers,  the  chemists, 
the  merchants  of  the  middle  ages,  when  he  had  once 
noted  that  from  them  we  have  gotten  these,  and  so 
many  other  words  like  them — '  cypher,'  *  algebra,* 
*  zero,'  'almanack,'  'zenith,*  'nadir,'  'azimuth,' 
'  alkali,'  '  alcohol,'  '  alchemy,'  '  alembic,'  '  elixir,' 
'magazine,'  '  tariff'  ? — for  if  one  or  two  of  these  were 
originally  Greek,  they  reached  us  through  the  Arabic, 
and  with  the  tokens  of  their  transit  cleaving  to  them. 
In  like  manner,  even  though  history  were  silent  on  the 
matter,  we  might  conclude,  and  we  know  that  we 
should  rightly  conclude,  that  the  origins  of  the  mo- 
nastic system  are  to  be  sought  in  the  Greek  and  not 
in  the  Latin  branch  of  the  Church,  seeing  that  with 
hardly  an  exception  the  words  expressing  the  con- 
stituent elements  of  the  system,  as  '  monk,'  '  monas- 
tery,' '  cenobite,'  ^anchorite,'  'ascetic,'  'hermit,' 
'archimandrite,'  are  Greek  and  not  Latin. 

But  the  study  of  words  will  throw  rays  of  light 
upon  a  past  infinitely  more  remote  than  any  which  I 
have  suggested  here,  will  reveal  to  us  secrets  of  the 
past,  which  else  must  have  been  lost  to  us  for  ever. 
Thus  it  must  be  a  question  of  profound  interest  for 
as  many  as  count  the  study  of  man  to  be  far  above 
every  other  study,  to  ascertain  what  point  of  culture 
that  Indo-European  race  of  which  we  come,  the  stirps 
generosa  et  historica  of  the  world,  as  Coleridge  has 
called  it  well,  had  attained,  while  it  was  dweUing  still 
as  one  family  in  that  which  was  its  common  home  in 
the  East.      No  voices  of  history,   the  very  faintest 


158  ON  THE   HISTORY  IN   WORDS. 

voices  of  tradition,  reach  us  from  ages  so  far  removed 
from  our  own.  But  in  the  silence  of  all  other  voices 
there  is  one  voice  which  makes  itself  heard,  and 
which  can  tell  us  much.  Where  Indian,  and  Greek, 
and  Latin,  and  Teutonic  designate  some  object  by 
the  same  word,  and  where  it  can  be  clearly  shown 
that  they  did  not,  at  a  later  day,  borrow  that  word 
one  from  the  other,  the  object,  we  may  confidently 
conclude,  must  have  been  familiar  to  the  Indo-Euro- 
pean race,  while  yet  these  several  groups  of  it  dwelt 
in  the  Asiatic  highlands  as  one  undivided  family  to- 
gether. Now  they  have  such  common  words  for  the 
chief  domestic  animals — for  ox,  for  sheep,  for  horse, 
for  dog,  for  goose,  and  for  many  more.  From  this 
we  have  a  right  to  gather  that  before  the  migrations 
began,  they  had  overlived  and  outgrown  the  fishing 
and  hunting  stages  of  existence,  and  entered  on  the 
pastoral.  They  have  not  all  the  same  words  for 
the  main  products  of  the  earth,  as  for  corn,  wheat, 
barley,  wine  ;  it  is  tolerably  evident  therefore  that 
they  had  not  entered  on  the  agricultural  stage.  So 
too  from  the  absence  of  names  in  common  for  the 
principal  metals,  we  have  a  right  to  argue  that  they 
had  not  arrived  at  a  knowledge  of  the  working  of 
these.  On  the  other  hand,  identical  names  for  dress, 
for  house,  for  door,  for  garden,  for  numbers  as  far  as 
a  hundred,  for  the  primary  relations  of  the  family,  as 
father,  mother,  brother,  sister,  son,  daughter,  for  the 
Godhead,  testify  that  the  common  stock,  intellectual 
and  moral,  was  not  small  with  which  they  severally 
went  their  way,  each  to  set  up  for  itself  and  work 
out  its  own  destinies  in  its  own  appointed  region  of 


HISTORY   OF  THE   WORD    CHURCH.  1 59 

the  earth.*  This  common  stock  may,  indeed,  have 
been  much  larger  than  these  investigations  declare  ; 
for  a  word,  once  common  to  all  these  languages,  may 
have  survived  only  in  one ;  or  possibly  may  have 
perished  in  all.  Larger  it  may  very  well,  but  poorer 
it  cannot,  have  been.f 

This  is  one  way  in  which  words  by  their  presence 
or  their  absence  may  teach  us  history  which  else  we 
could  never  know.     I  pass  to  other  ways. 

There  are  vast  harvests  of  historic  lore  garnered 
often  in  single  words  ;  important  facts  which  they  at 
once  proclaim  and  preserve  ;  these  too  such  as  some- 
times have  survived  nowhere  else  but  in  them.  How 
much  history  lies  in  the  word  'church.'  I  see  no 
sufficient  reason  to  dissent  from  those  who  derive  it 
from  the  Greek  Kvpta/ci],  *  that  which  pertains  to  the 
Lord,'  or  *  the  house  which  is  the  Lord's.'  A  difficul- 
ty indeed  meets  us  here.  How  explain  the  presence 
of  a  Greek  word  in  the  vocabulary  of  our  Anglo-Sax- 
on forefathers  ?  for  that  we  do  not  derive  it  immedi- 


'*  See  Mommsen,  Romische  Geschichte^  vol.  i.  c.  2 ;  Max  Miiller,  On 
the  Science  of  Language^  part  ii.  p.  223. 

f  Ozanam  {Les  Germains  avant  le  Cristianisme^  p.  155)';  Dans  le 
vocabulaire  d'une  langue  on  a  tout  le  spectacle  d'une  civilisation.  On 
y  voit  ce  qu'un  peuple  salt  des  choses  invisibles,  si  les  notions  de  Dieu, 
de  lame,  du  devoir,  sont  assez  pures  chez  lui  pour  ne  souffrir  que  des 
termes  exacts.  On  mesure  la  puissance  de  ses  institutions  par  le  nom- 
bre  et  la  propriete  des  termes  qu'elles  veulent,  pour  leur  service  ;  la 
liturgie  a  ses  paroles  sacramentelles,  la  procedure  ses  formules.  Enfin, 
si  ce  peuple  a  etudie  la  nature,  il  faut  voir  a  quel  point  il  en  a  penetre 
les  secrets,  par  quelle  variete  d'expressions,  par  quels  sons  flatteurs  ou 
energiques,  il  a  cherche  k  decrire  les  divers  aspects  du  ciel  et  de  la  terre, 
^  faire,  pour  ainsi  dire,  I'inventaire  des  richesses  temporelles  dont  il  dis- 
pose. 


l60  ON  THE  HISTORY  IN   WORDS. 

ately  from  the  Greek,  is  certain.  What  contact,  di- 
rect or  indirect,  between  the  languages  will  accr>unt 
for  this  ?  The  explanation  is  curious.  While  Angles, 
Saxons  and  other  tribes  of  the  Teutonic  stock  were 
almost  universally  converted  through  contact  with 
the  Latin  Church  in  the  western  provinces  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire,  or  by  its  missionaries,  some  Goths  on 
the  Lower  Danube  had  been  brought  at  an  earli- 
er date  to  the  knowledge  of  Christ  by  Greek  mis- 
sionaries from  Constantinople  ;  and  this  KvpLaKij,  or 
*  church,'  did,  with  certain  other  words,  pass  over 
from  the  Greek  to  the  Gothic  tongue ;  these  Goths, 
the  first  converted  and  the  first  therefore  with  a 
Christian  vocabulary,  lending  the  word  in  their  turn 
to  the  other  German  tribes,  to  our  Anglo-Saxon  fore- 
fathers among  the  rest ;  and  by  this  circuit  it  has 
come  round  from  Constantinople  to  us.* 

Or  again,  interrogate  *  pagan '  and  '  paganism,* 
and  you  will  find  important  history  in  them.  You 
are  aware  that  *  pagani,'  derived  from  '  pagus,*  a  vil- 
lage, had  at  first  no  religious  significance,  but  desig- 
nated the  dwellers  in  hamlets  and  villages,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  inhabitants  of  towns  and  cities.     It 

*  The  passage  most  illustrative  of  the  parentage  of  the  word  is  from 
Walafrid  Strabo  (about  a.d.  840):  Ab  ipsis  autem  Grrecis  Kyrch  k 
Kyrios,  et  alia  multa  accepimus.  Sicut  donius  Dei  Basilica,  i.e.  Regia 
k  Rege,  sic  etiam  Kyrica,  i.e.  Dominica,  k  Domino,  nuncupatur.  Si 
autem  quaeritur,  qua  occasione  ad  nos  vestigia  hoec  graecitatis  advenerint, 
dicendum  proecipu^  h.  Gothis,  qui  et  Getoe,  ctlm  eo  tempore,  quo  ad 
fidem  Christi  perducti  sunt,  in  Grxcorum  provinciis  commorantes,  nos- 
trum, i.e.  theotiscum  sermonem  habuerint,  Cf.  Rudolf  von  Raumer, 
Ein7virkung  des  Christenthums  auf  die  Althochdeutschc  Sprarhe^ 
p.  288;  Neiduer,  Kirch,  Gcschichte^  p.  2. 


PAGAN   AND    HEATHEN.  l6l 

was,  indeed,  often  applied  to  all  civilians,  as  contra- 
distinguished from  the  military  caste  ;  and  this  fact 
may  have  had  a  certain  influence,  when  the  idea  of 
the  faithful  as  soldiers  of  Christ  was  strongly  realized 
in  the  minds  of  men.  But  it  was  mainly  in  the  fol- 
lowing way  that  it  became  a  name  for  those  alien  from 
the  faith  of  Christ.  The  Church  fixed  itself  first  in 
the  seats  and  centres  of  intelligence,  in  the  towns  and 
cities  of  the  Roman  Empire  ;  in  them  its  earliest  tri- 
umphs were  won  ;  while,  long  after  these  had  ac- 
cepted the  truth,  heathen  superstitions  and  idolatries 
lingered  on  in  the  obscure  hamlets  and  villages ;  so 
that  '  pagans,'  or  villagers,  came  to  be  applied  to  all 
the  remaining  votaries  of  the  old  and  decayed  super- 
stitions, although  not  all,  but  only  most  of  them,  were 
such.  In  an  edict  of  the  Emperor  Valentinian,  of 
date  A.D.  368,  'pagan'  first  assumes  this  secondary 
meaning.  'Heathen'  has  run  a  course  curiously 
similar.  When  the  Christian  faith  was  first  introduced 
into  Germany,  it  was  the  wild  dwellers  on  the  heaths 
who  were  the  last  to  accept  it,  the  last  probably 
whom  it  reached.  One  hardly  expects  an  etymology 
in  Piers  Ploughman  ;  but  this  is  there  (10541,  2)  : 

'  Hethen  is  to  mene  after  heeth, 
And  untiled  erthe.' 

Here,  then,  are  two  instructive  notices — one,  the 
historic  fact  that  the  Church  of  Christ  planted  itself 
first  in  the  haunts  of  learning  and  intelligence  ;  an- 
other, morally  more  important,  that  it  did  not  shun 
discussion,  feared  not  to  encounter  the  wit  and  wis- 
dom of  this  world,  or  to  expose  its  claims   to   the 


1 62  ON  THE  HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 

searching  examination  of  educated  men  ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  had  its  claims  first  recognized  by  them,  and 
in  the  great  cities  of  the  world  won  first  a  complete 
triumph  over  all  opposing  powers.* 

I  quoted  in  my  first  lecture  the  words  of  one  who, 
magnifying  the  advantage  to  be  derived  from  such 
studies  as  ours,  observed  that  oftentimes  more  might 
be  learned  from  the  history  of  a  word  than  from  the 
history  of  a  campaign.  Take  some  Latin  word,  *  im- 
perator '  for  example ;  follow  this,  as  Dean  Merivale 
has  followed  it  in  his  History  of  the  Romans, \  and  I 
think  you  will  own  as  much.  But  words  of  our  own 
out  of  number,  such  as  'sophist,' J  'barbarous,' 
'clerk,'  'romance,'  'benefice,'  'sacrament,'  suggest 
themselves  to  me,  any  one  of  which  would  prove  the 
truth  of  the  assertion.  Let  us  take  '  sacrament ' ;  its 
history,  while  it  carries  us  far,  will  yet  carry  us  by 
ways  full  of  instruction  ;  and  this,  while  we  confine 
ourselves  strictly  to  this  history,  not  needlessly  med- 
dling with  discussions  about  the  thing,  its  place  and 
importance  in  the  Christian  scheme.  We  shall  find 
ourselves  first  among  the  forms  of  Roman  law.  The 
'  sacramentum  '  appears  there  as  the  deposit  or  pledge, 
which  in  certain  suits  plaintiff  and  defendant  were 
ahke   bound   to   make,  and  whereby  they  engaged 


*  There  is  a  good  note  on  *  pagan '  in  Gibbon*s  Decline  and  Fall ^  c.  2 1, 
at  the  end  ;  and  in  Grimm's  Deutsche  Mythol.  p.  1198  ;  and  the  history 
of  the  changes  in  the  word's  use  is  well  traced  in  another  interest  by 
Mill,  Logic ^  vol.  ii.  p.  271. 

f  Vol.  iii.  pp.  441-452. 

X  For  a  history  of  '  sopliist '  see  Sir  Alexander  Grant's  Ethics  of  Aris- 
totle ^  2nd  ed.  vol.  I  p.  106,  sqq. 


SACRAMENT.  163 

themselves  to  one  another ;  the  loser  of  the  suit  for- 
feiting his  pledge  to  sacred  temple  uses,  from  which 
fact  the  name  '  sacramentum/  or  thing  consecrated, 
was  first  derived.  The  word,  as  next  employed, 
plants  us  amidst  the  mihtary  affairs  of  Rome,  desig- 
nating the  military  oath  by  which  the  Roman  soldiers 
mutually  engaged  themselves  at  the  first  enlisting 
never  to  desert  their  standards,  or  turn  their  backs 
upon  the  enemy,  or  abandon  their  Imperator — this 
employment  teaching  us  the  sacredness  which  the 
Romans  attached  to  their  military  engagements,  and 
going  far  to  account  for  their  victories.  The  word 
was  then  transferred  from  this  military  oath  to  any 
solemn  oath  whatsoever.  These  three  stages  '  sacra- 
mentum '  had  already  passed  through,  before  the 
Church  claimed  it  for  her  own,  or  indeed  herself  ex- 
isted at  all.  Her  early  writers,  out  of  a  sense  of  the 
sacredness  and  solemnity  of  the  oath,  transferred  this 
name  to  almost  any  act  of  special  solemnity  or  sancti- 
ty, above  all  to  such  mysteries  as  intended  more  than 
met  eye  or  ear.  For  them  the  Incarnation  was  a 
*  sacrament,'  the  lifting  up  of  the  brazen  serpent  was 
a  '  sacrament,'  the  giving  of  the  manna,  and  many 
things  more.  It  is  well  to  be  acquainted  with  this 
phase  of  the  word's  history,  depriving  as  it  does  of  all 
convincing  power  those  passages  quoted  by  Roman 
Catholic  controversialists  from  early  church-writers  in 
proof  of  their  seven  sacraments.  It  is  quite  true  that 
these  may  have  called  marriage  a  *  sacrament,'  and 
Confirmation  a  '  sacrament,'  and  we  may  reach  the 
Roman  seven  without  difficulty  ;  but  then  they  called 
many  things  more,  which  even  the   theologians  of 


1 64  ON  THE   HISTORY  IN   WORDS. 

Rome  do  not  include  in  the  *  sacraments  '  properly  so 
called,  by  the  same  name  ;  and  this  evidence,  prov- 
ing too  much,  in  fact  proves  nothing  at  all.  One 
other  stage  in  the  word's  history  remains  ;  its  limita- 
tion, namely,  to  the  two  *  sacraments,'  properly  so 
called,  of  the  Christian  Church.  A  reminiscence 
of  the  employment  of  '  sacrament,'  an  employment 
which  still  survived,  to  signify  the  plighted  troth  of 
the  Roman  soldier  to  his  captain  and  commander, 
was  that  which  had  most  to  do  with  the  transfer  of 
the  word  to  Baptism  ;  wherein  we,  with  more  than 
one  allusion  to  this  oath  of  theirs,  pledge  ourselves 
to  fight  manfully  under  Christ's  banner,  and  to  con- 
tinue his  faithful  soldiers  and  servants  to  our  life's 
end  ;  while  the  mysterious  character  of  the  Holy  Eu- 
charist was  mainly  that  which  earned  for  it  this  name. 
We  have  already  found  history  imbedded  in  the 
word  '  frank  '  ;  but  I  must  bring  forward  the  Franks 
again,  to  account  for  the  fact  with  which  we  are  all 
familiar,  that  in  the  East  not  Frenchmen  alone,  but 
all  Europeans,  are  so  called.  Why,  it  may  be  asked, 
should  this  be  ?  This  wide  use  of  '  Frank  '  dates 
from  the  Crusades  ;  Michaud,  the  chief  French  histo- 
rian of  these,  finding  evidence  here  that  his  country- 
men took  a  decided  lead,  as  their  gallantry  well  fitted 
them  to  do,  in  these  romantic  enterprises  of  the  mid- 
dle ages ;  impressed  themselves  so  strongly  on  the 
imagination  of  the  East  as  the  crusading  nation  of 
Europe,  that  their  name  was  extended  to  all  the  war- 
riors  of  Christendom.  He  is  not  here  snatching  for 
them  more  than  their  just  right.  A  very  large  pro- 
portion  of  the  noblest  Crusaders,  from  Godfrey  of 


MISCREANT.   ASSASSIN,    CARDINAL.  165 

Bouillon  to  S.  Lewis,  as  of  others  who  did  most  to 
bring  these  enterprises  about,  as  Peter  the  Hermit, 
Pope  Urban  the  Second,  S.  Bernard,  were  French, 
and  thus  gave,  in  a  way  sufficiently  easy  to  explain, 
an  appellation  to  all.* 

To  the  Crusades  also,  and  to  the  intense  hatred 
which  they  roused  throughout  Christendom  against 
the  Mahometan  infidels,  we  owe  *  miscreant,'  as  des- 
ignating one  to  whom  the  vilest  principles  and  prac- 
tice are  ascribed.  A  *  miscreant,'  at  the  first,  meant 
simply  a  misbeliever.  The  name  would  have  been 
applied  as  freely,  and  with  as  little  sense  of  injustice, 
to  the  royal-hearted  Saladin  as  to  the  vilest  wretch 
that  fought  in  his  armies.  By  degrees,  however, 
those  who  employed  it  tinged  it  more  and  more  with 
their  feeling  and  passion,  more  and  more  lost  sight 
of  its  primary  use,  until  they  used  it  of  any  whom 
they  regarded  with  feelings  of  abhorrence  such  as 
those  which  they  entertained  for  an  infidel  ;  just  as 
'  Samaritan  '  was  employed  by  the  Jews  simply  as  a 
term  of  reproach,  and  with  no  thought  whether  he  on 
whom  it  was  fastened  was  in  fact  one  of  that  detested 
race  or  not ;  where  indeed  they  were  quite  sure  that 
he  was  not  (John  viii.  48).  'Assassin'  also,  an 
Arabic  word  whose  story  you  will  find  no  difficulty 
in  obtaining, — you  may  read  it  in  Gibbon, f — connects 
itself  with  a  romantic  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
Crusades. 

Various  explanations  of  '  cardinal  '  have  been  pro- 
posed, which  should  account   for   the  appropriation 

*  See  Fuller,  I/o/y  War,  b.  i.  c.  13.       f  Decline  and  Fall,  c.  64. 


1 66  ON  THE   HISTORY   IN  WORDS. 

of  this  name  to  the  parochial  clergy  of  the  city  of 
Rome  with  the  subordinate  bishops  of  that  diocese. 
This  appropriation  is  an  outgrowth,  and  a  standing 
testimony,  of  the  measureless  assumptions  of  the 
Roman  See.  One  of  the  favorite  comparisons  by 
which  that  See  was  wont  to  set  out  its  relation  of 
superiority  to  all  other  Churches  of  Christendom  was 
this ;  it  was  the  hinge,  or  *  cardo,'  on  which  all  the 
rest  of  the  Church,  as  the  door,  at  once  depended  and 
turned.  It  followed  presently  upon  this  that  the 
clergy  of  Rome  were  *  cardinales,'  as  nearest  to,  and 
most  closely  connected  with  him  who  was  thus  the 
hinge,  or  *  cardo,'  of  all.* 

'  Legend  *  is  a  word  with  an  instructive  history. 
We  all  know  what  a  '  legend '  means  now.  It  is  a 
tale  which  is  not  true,  which,  however  historic  in 
form,  is  not  so  in  fact,  claims  no  serious  belief  for  it- 
self. It  was  quite  otherwise  once.  By  this  name  of 
*  legends '  the  annual  commemorations  of  the  faith 
and  patience  of  God's  saints  in  persecution  and  death 
were  originally  called  ;  these  legends  in  this  title 
which  they  bore  proclaiming  that  they  were  worthy 
to  be  read,  and  from  this  Worthiness  deriving  their 
name.  At  a  later  day,  as  corruptions  spread  through 
the    Church,    these     *  legends '    grew,    in    Hooker's 

*  Thus  a  letter  professing  to  be  of  Pope  Anacletus  the  First  in  the 
first  century,  but  really  belonging  to  the  ninth  :  Apostolica  Sedes  car- 
do  et  caput  omnium  Ecclesiarum  i  Domino  est  constituta ;  et  sicut 
cardine  ostium  regitur,  sic  hujus  S.  Sedis  auctoritate  omnes  Ecclesice 
reguntur.  And  we  have  'cardinal'  put  in  relation  with  this  *  cardo* 
in  a  genuine  letter  of  Pope  Leo  the  Ninth  :  Clerici  summoe  Sedis  Car- 
dtnales  dicuntur,  cardini  utique  illi  quo  cetera  moventur,  vicinius  ad- 
hrerentes. 


WORDS   COINED   BY  THE   SCHOOLMEN.  1 6/ 

words,  **to  be  nothing  else  but  heaps  of  frivolous 
and  scandalous  vanities,"  having  been  ''even  with 
disdain  thrown  out,  the  very  nests  which  bred  them 
abhorring  them."  How  steeped  in  falsehood,  and  to 
what  an  extent,  according  to  Luther's  indignant  term 
of  the  word,  the  *  legends  '  (legende)  must  have  be- 
come '  lyings '  (liigende),  we  can  best  guess,  when  we 
measure  the  moral  forces  which  must  have  been  at 
work,  before  that  which  was  accepted  at  the  first  as 
**  worthy  to  be  read,"  should  have  been  felt  by  this 
very  name  to  announce  itself  as  most  unworthy,  as 
belonging  at  best  to  the  region  of  fable,  if  not  to  that 
of  actual  untruth. 

An  inquiry  into  the  pedigree  of  *  dunce  '  lays  open 
to  us  an  important  page  in  the  intellectual  history  of 
Europe.  Certain  theologians  in  the  middle  ages 
were  termed  Schoolmen  ;  having  been  formed  and 
trained  in  the  cloister  and  cathedral  schools  which 
Charlemagne  and  his  immediate  successors  had  foun- 
ded. These  were  men  not  to  be  lightly  spoken  of, 
as  they  often  are  by  those  who  never  read  a  line  of 
their  works,  and  have  not  a  thousandth  part  of  their 
wit;  who  moreover  little  guess  how  many  of  the 
most  famihar  words  which  they  employ,  or  misem- 
ploy, have  descended  to  them  from  these.  *  Real,' 
*  virtual,'  'entity,'  'nonentity,'  'equivocation,'  all 
these,  with  many  more  unknown  to  classical  Latin, 
but  now  almost  necessities  to  us,  were  first  coined  by 
the  Schoolmen  ;  and,  passing  over  from  them  into 
the  speech  of  those  more  or  less  interested  in  their 
speculations,  have  gradually  filtered  through  the  suc- 
cessive strata  of  society,  till  now  they  have  reached. 


l68  ON  THE   HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 

some  of  them,  to  quite  the  lowest.  At  the  revival 
of  learning,  however,  their  works  fell  out  of  favor : 
they  were  not  written  in  classical  Latin  :  the  forms 
into  which  their  speculations  were  thrown  were  often 
unattractive  ;  it  was  mainly  in  their  authority  that 
the  Roman  Church  found  support  for  its  perilled 
dogmas.  On  all  these  accounts  it  was  esteemed  a 
mark  of  intellectual  progress  to  have  broken  with 
them,  and  thrown  off  their  yoke.  Some,  however, 
still  clung  to  these  Schoolmen,  and  to  one  in  partic- 
ular, Duns  Scotus,  the  greatest  teacher  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan Order ;  and  many  times  an  adherent  of  the  old 
learning  would  seek  to  strengthen  his  position  by  an 
appeal  to  its  famous  doctor,  familiarly  called  Duns  ; 
while  those  of  the  new  learning  would  contemptu- 
ously rejoin,  **  Oh,  you  are  a  Dunsmany'  or  more 
briefly,  "  You  are  a  Duns^'' — or,  *'  This  is  a  piece  of 
dimsery  ;  "  and  inasmuch  as  the  new  learning  was 
ever  enhsting  more  and  more  of  the  genius  and 
scholarship  of  the  age  on  its  side,  the  title  became 
more  and  more  a  term  of  scorn  :  **  Remember  ye 
not,"  says  Tyndal,  '*  how  within  this  thirty  years  and 
far  less,  the  old  barking  curs,  Dunce  s  disciples,  and 
like  draff  called  Scotists,  the  children  of  darkness, 
raged  in  every  pulpit  against  Greek,  Latin,  and  He- 
brew ?  "  And  thus  from  that  conflict  long  ago  ex- 
tinct between  the  old  and  the  new  learning,  that 
strife  between  the  medieval  and  the  modern  theology, 
we  inherit  *  dunce  '  and  ^duncery.'  The  lot  of  Duns, 
it  must  be  confessed,  has  been  a  hard  one,  who, 
whatever  his  merits,  as  a  teacher  of  Christian  truth, 
was  assuredly  one  of  the  keenest  and  most  subtle- 


MAMMETRY   AND    MAMMETS.  1 69 

witted  of  men.  He,  the  ''subtle  Doctor"  by  pre- 
eminence, for  so  his  admirers  called  him,  ''the  wittiest 
of  the  school  divines,"  as  Hooker  does  not  scruple  to 
style  him,  could  scarcely  have  anticipated,  and  did 
not  at  all  deserve,  that  his  name  should  be  turned 
into  a  by-word  for  invincible  stupidity. 

This  is  but  one  example  of  the  singular  fortune 
waiting  upon  words.  We  have  another  of  a  parallel 
injustice,  in  the  use  which  *  mammetry,'  a  contrac- 
tion of  '  Mahometry,'  obtained  in  our  early  Enghsh. 
Mahometanism  being  the  most  prominent  form  of 
false  religion  with  which  our  ancestors  came  in  con- 
tact, *  mammetry '  was  used  up  to  and  beyond  the 
Reformation,  to  designate  first  any  false  religion, 
and  then  the  worship  of  idols ;  idolatry  being 
proper  to,  and  a  leading  feature  of,  most  of  the 
false  religions  of  the  world.  Men  did  not  pause  to 
remember  that  Mahometanism  is  the  great  excep- 
tion, being  as  it  is  a  protest  against  all  idol-worship 
whatsoever ;  so  that  it  was  a  signal  injustice  to  call 
an  idol  *  a  mammet '  or  a  Mahomet,  and  idolatry 
*  mammetry.'  To  pursue  the  fortunes  of  the  word  a 
little  further,  at  the  next  step  not  religious  images 
only,  but  dolls  were  called  '  mammets ;  '  and  when 
in  Romeo  and  Juliet  old  Capulet  contemptuously 
styles  his  daughter  '  a  whining  fnammet,'  the  process 
is  strange,  yet  its  every  step  easy  to  be  traced,  where- 
by the  name  of  the  Arabian  false  prophet  is  fastened 
on  the  fair  maiden  of  Verona. 

A   misnomer  such  as  this  may  remind  us  of  the 
immense  importance   of  possessing  such  names  for 
things  as  shall  not  involve  or  suggest  an  error.     We 
8 


I/O  ON  THE  HISTORY   IN   WORDS. 

have  already  seen  this  in  the  province  of  the  moral 
life  ;  but  in  other  regions  also  it  nearly  concerns  us. 
Resuming,  as  words  do,  the  past,  moulding  the 
future,  how  important  it  is  that  significant  facts  or 
tendencies  in  the  world's  history  should  receive  their 
right  names.  It  is  a  corrupting  of  the  very  springs 
and  sources  of  knowledge,  when  we  bind  up  not  a 
truth,  but  an  error,  in  the  very  nomenclature  which 
we  use.  It  is  the  putting  of  an  obstacle  in  the  way, 
which,  however  imperceptibly,  is  yet  ever  at  work, 
hindering  any  right  apprehension  of  the  thing  which 
has  been  thus  erroneously  noted. 

Out  of  a  sense  of  this,  an  eminent  German  scholar 
of  the  last  century,  writing  On  the  Influence  of  Opin- 
ions on  Language^  did  not  stop  here,  nor  make  this 
the  entire  title  of  his  book,  but  added  another  and 
further  clause — and  on  the  Infliie7ice  of  Language  on 
Opinions ;  *  the  matter  which  fulfils  the  promise  of 
this  latter  clause  constituting  by  far  the  most  interest- 
ing and  original  portion  of  his  work  :  for  while  the 
influence  of  opinions  on  words  is  so  little  called  in 
question  that  the  assertion  of  it  sounds  almost  like  a 
truism,  this,  on  the  contrary,  of  words  on  opinions, 
would  doubtless  present  itself  as  a  novelty  to  many. 
And  yet  it  is  an  influence  which  has  been  powerfully 
felt  in  every  region  of  human  knowledge,  in  science, 
in  art,  in  morals,  in  theology.  The  reactive  energy 
of  words,  not  merely  on  the  passions  of  men  (for  that 
of  course),  but  on  their  opinions  calmly  and  deliber- 


*  Vo7i  dem  Einfluss  der  Meimtngen  in  die  Sprache^  und  der  SpracJu 
in  die  Meinufigen^  von  J.  D.  Michaelis,  Berlin,  1760. 


CRYSTAL.  171 

ately  formed,  would  furnish  a  very  curious  chapter 
in  the  history  of  human  knowledge  and  human  igno- 
rance. 

Sometimes  words  with  no  fault  of  theirs,  for  they 
did  not  originally  bind  up  an  error,  will  yet  draw 
some  error  in  their  train,  of  which  error  they  will 
afterwards  prove  the  most  effectual  bulwark  and 
shield.  Let  me  instance — the  author  just  referred 
to  supplies  the  example — the  word  'crystal.'  The 
strange  notion  concerning  the  origin  of  the  thing, 
current  among  the  natural  philosophers  of  antiquity, 
and  which  only  two  centuries  ago  Sir  Thomas  Browne 
thought  it  worth  while  to  place  first  and  foremost 
among  the  Vulgar  Errors  which  he  undertook  to  re- 
fute, was  plainly  traceable  to  a  confusion  occasioned 
by  the  name.  Crystal,  as  they  supposed,  was  ice  or 
snow  which  had  undergone  such  a  process  of  indura- 
tion, as  wholly  and  forever  to  have  lost  its  fluidity ;  * 
and  Pliny,  backing  up  one  error  by  another,  af^rmed 
that  it  was  only  found  in  regions  of  extreme  cold. 
The  fact  is,  that  the  Greek  word  for  crystal  originally 
signified  ice  ;  but  was  early  transferred  to  that  dia- 
phanous quartz  which  has  so  much  the  look  of  ice, 
and  which  alone  we  call  by  this  name  ;  and  then  in  a 
little  while  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  the  two, 
having  the  same  name,  were  in  fact  the  same  sub- 
stance ;  and  this  mistake  it  took  ages  to  correct. 

Natural  history  abounds  in  legends.      In  the  word 

*  Augustine  :  Quid  est  crystallum  ?  Nix  est  glacie  durata  per  mul- 
tos  annos  ita  ut  a  sole  vel  igne  facile  dissolvi  non  possit.  So  too  in 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  tragedy  of  Valeittinian,  a  chaste  matron  is 
said  to  be  "  cold  as  crystal  never  to  be  thawed  again. " 


172  ON  THE   HISTORY   IN   WORDS. 

*  leopard'  one  of  these  has  been  permanently  bound 
up  ;  the  error,  having  first  given  birth  to  the  name, 
being  afterwards  itself  maintained  and  propagated  by- 
it.  The  leopard,  as  is  well  known,  was  not  for  the 
Greek  and  Latin  zoologists  a  specie  by  itself,  but  a 
mongrel  birth  of  the  male  panther  or  pard  and  the 
lioness  ;  and  in  *  leopard  '  or  '  lion-pard,'  this  fabled 
double  descent  is  expressed.*  *  Cockatrice'  embod- 
ies a  somewhat  similar  fable  ; .  the  fable  however  in 
this  case  being  invented  to  account  for  the  name.f 

It  was  Eichhorn  who  first  suggested  the  calling  of 
a  certain  group  of  languages,  which  stand  in  a  marked 
contradistinction  to  the  Indo-European  or  Aryan 
family,  by  the  common  name  of  *  Semitic'  A  word 
which  should  include  all  these  was  wanting,  and  this 
one  was  handy  and  has  made  its  fortune  ;  at  the  same 
time  implying,  as  *  Semitic '  does,  that  these  are  all 
languages  spoken  by  races  which  are  descended  from 
Shem,  it  is  eminently  calculated  to  mislead.  There 
are  non-Semitic  races,  the  Phoenicians  for  example, 
who  have  spoken  a  Semitic  language ;  there  are 
Semitic   races  who  have  not  spoken  one.     Against 

*  Indo-European  '  the  same  objection  may  be  urged  ; 
seeing  that  several  languages  are  European,  that  is, 
spoken  within  the  limits  of  Europe,  as  the  Maltese, 
the  Finnish,  the  Hungarian,  the  Basque,  the  Turkish, 
which  lie  altogether  outside  of  this  group. 

*  Gothic '   is  plainly   a   misnomer,   and  has   often 

*  This  error  lasted  into  modern  times ;  tlius  Fuller  {A  Pisgah  Sight 
of  Palestine^  vol.  i.  p.  195  )  :  *'  Leopards  and  mules  are  properly  no 
creatures." 

f  See  Wright,  The  Bible  Word  Book,  s.  v. 


GOTHIC,    CLASSICAL,    ROMANTIC.  1/3 

proved  a  misleader  as  well,  when  applied  to  a  style 
of  architecture  which  belongs  not  to  one,  but  to  all 
the  Germanic  tribes  ;  which,  moreover,  did  not  come 
into  existence -till  many  centuries  after  any  people 
called  Goths  had  ceased  from  the  earth.  Those, 
indeed,  who  first  called  this  medieval  architecture 
'  Gothic/  had  no  intention  of  ascribing  to  the  Goths 
the  first  invention  of  it,  however  this  language  may 
seem  now  to  bind  up  in  itself  an  assertion  of  the 
kind.  *  Gothic  '  was  at  first  a  mere  random  name  of 
contempt.  The  Goths,  with  the  Vandals,  being  the 
standing  representatives  of  the  rude  in  manners  and 
barbarous  in  taste,  the  critics  who  would  fain  throw 
scorn  on  this  architecture  as  compared  with  that 
classical  Italian  which  alone  seemed  worthy  of  their 
admiration,*  called  it  '  Gothic,'  meaning  rude  and 
barbarous  thereby.  We  who  recognize  in  this  Gothic 
architecture  the  most  wondrous  and  consummate 
birth  of  genius  in  one  region  of  art,  find  it  hard  to 
believe  that  this  was  once  a  mere  title  of  depreciation 
and  scorn,  and  sometimes  wrongly  assume  a  reference 
in  the  word  to  the  people  among  whom  first  it  arose. 
'Classical'  and  '  romantic,'  names  given  to  oppos- 
ing schools  of  literature  and  art,  contain  an  absurd 
antithesis  ;  and  either  say  nothing  at  all,  or  say  some- 
thing erroneous.     *'  Revival  of  learning"  is  a  phrase 

*  The  name,  as  the  designation  of  a  style  of  architecture,  came  to  us 
from  Italy.  Thus  Fuller  in  his  Worthies:  "Let  the  Italians  deride 
our  English  and  condemn  them  for  Got  his  k  buildings."  See  too  a  very 
curious  expression  of  men's  sentiments  about  Gothic  architecture  as 
simply  equivalent  to  barbarous,  in  Phillips's  New  World  of  Words^ 
1706,  s.  V.  'Gothick.' 


174  ON  THE  HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 

only  partially  true  when  applied  to  that  mighty  in- 
tellectual movement  in  Western  Europe  which 
marked  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  the  be- 
ginning of  the  sixteenth.  A  revival  there  might  be, 
and  indeed  there  was,  of  Greek  learning  at  that  time  ; 
but  there  could  not  be  properly  affirmed  a  revival  of 
Latin,  inasmuch  as  it  had  never  been  dead  ;  or,  if  any 
will  insist  on  this,  had  revived  nearly  two  centuries 
before.  '  Renaissance,'  applied  in  France  to  the  new 
direction  which  art  took  about  the  age  of  Francis  the 
First,  is  another  question-begging  word.  Very  many 
would  entirely  deny  that  the  bringing  back  of  an  an- 
tique pagan  spirit,  and  pagan  forms  as  the  utterance 
of  this,  into  Christian  art  was  a  *  renaissance  '  or  new 
birth  of  it  at  all. 

But  inaccuracy  of  naming  may  draw  after  it  more 
serious  mischief  in  regions  more  important.  No- 
where is  accuracy  more  vital  than  In  words  having  to 
do  with  the  chief  facts  and  objects  of  our  faith  ;  for 
such  words,  as  Coleridge  has  observed,  are  never  in- 
ert, but  constantly  exercise  an  immense  reactive  in- 
fluence on  those  who  employ  them,  even  as  they 
spread  around  them  an  atmosphere,  which  those  who 
often  use,  or  often  hear  them  used,  unconsciously  in- 
hale. The  so-called  *  Unitarians,'  claiming  by  this 
name  of  theirs  to  be  asserters  of  the  unity  of  the 
Godhead,  claim  that  which  belongs  to  us  by  far  bet- 
ter right  than  to  them  ;  which,  indeed,  belonging  of 
fullest  right  to  us,  does  not  properly  belong  to  them 
at  all.  I  should,  therefore,  without  any  intention  of 
offence,  refuse  the  name  to  them  ;  just  as  I  should 
decline,  by  calling  those  of  the  Roman  obedience 


STUDY   OF  NAMES.  1/5 

'Catholics,'  to  give  up  the  whole  question  at  issue 
between  them  and  us.  So,  also,  were  I  one  of  them, 
I  should  never,  however  convenient  it  might  some- 
times prove,  consent  to  call  the  great  rehgious  move- 
ment of  Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  '  Re- 
formation.' Such  in  our  esteem  it  was,  and  in  the 
deepest,  truest  sense  of  the  word ;  a  shaping  anew 
of  things  that  were  amiss  in  the  Church.  But  how 
any  who  esteem  it  a  disastrous,  and,  on  their  parts 
who  brought  it  about,  a  most  guilty  schism,  can  con- 
sent to  call  it  by  this  name,  is  surprising. 

Let  me  urge  on  you  here  the  importance  of  seek- 
ing in  every  case  to  acquaint  yourselves  with  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  any  body  of  men  who  have 
played  an  important  part  in  history,  above  all  in  the 
history  of  your  own  land,  obtained  the  name  by 
which  they  were  afterwards  willing  to  be  known,  or 
which  was  used  for  their  designation  by  others.  This 
you  may  do  as  a  matter  of  historical  inquiry,  and 
keeping  entirely  aloof  in  spirit  from  the  scorn,  the 
bitterness,  the  falsehood,  the  calumny,  out  of  which 
very  frequently  these  names  were  first  imposed. 
Whatever  of  these  may  have  been  at  work  in  them 
who  coined  or  gave  currency  to  the  name,  the  name 
itself  can  never  without  serious  loss  be  neglected  by 
any  who  would  truly  understand  the  moral  signifi- 
cance of  the  thing  ;  always  something,  often  much, 
may  be  learned  from  it.  Learn,  then,  about  each 
one  of  these  names  which  you  meet  in  your  studies, 
whether  it  was  one  which  men  gave  to  themselves ; 
or  one  imposed  on  them  by  others,  and  which  they 


176  ON  THE   HISTORY  IN   WORDS. 

never  recognized  ;  or  one  which  being  first  imposed 
by  others,  was  yet  in  course  of  time  admitted  and 
allowed  by  themselves.  We  have  examples  in  all 
these  kinds.  Thus  the  '  Gnostics  '  called  themselves 
such  ;  the  name  was  of  their  own  devising,  and  de- 
clared that  whereof  they  made  their  boast ;  it  was 
the  same  with   the  *  Cavaliers '   of  our    Civil   War. 

*  Quaker,'  *  Puritan,'  *  Roundhead,'  were  all,  on  the 
contrary,  names  devised  by  others,  and  never  ac- 
cepted by  those  to  whom  they  were  attached  ;  while 

*  Whig '  and  '  Tory  *  were  nicknames  originally  of 
bitterest  scorn  and  party  hate,  given  by  two  political 
bodies  in  England  to  one  another,*  the  Whig  being 
properly  a  sour  Scottish  Covenanter,  the  Tory  an 
Irish  bog-trotting  freebooter ;  while  yet  these  nick- 
names in  tract  of  time  so  lost  and  let  go  what  was 
offensive  in  them,  that  in  the  end  they  were  adopted 
by  the  very  parties  themselves.  The  German  *  Lu- 
therans '  were  originally  so  called  by  their  antag- 
onists, f  In  the  same  way  *  Methodists'  was  a  title 
not  first  taken  by  the  followers  of  Wesley,  but  fas- 
tened on  them  by  others,  while  yet  they  have  been 
subsequently  willing,  though  I  suppose  with  a  certain 
reserve,  to  accept  and  to  be  known  by  it.  '  Momi- 
ers '  or  '  Mummers,'  a  name  in  itself  of  far  greater 
offence,  has  obtained  in  Switzerland  something  of  the 
same  recognition.  Exactly  in  the  same  way  '  Capu- 
chin *  was  at  first  a  jesting  nickname,  given  by  the 

♦  In  North's  Examen,  p.  321,  is  a  very  lively,  though  not  a  very  im- 
partial, account  of  the  rise  of  these  names. 

f  Dr.  Eck,  one  of  tlie  earliest  who  wrote  against  the  Reformation, 
first  called  the  Reformed  'LutheranL* 


PREMIER,    GNOSTIC.  17/ 

boys  in  the  streets  to  that  branch  of  the  Franciscans 
which  afterwards  accepted  it  as  their  proper  designa- 
tion. It  was  provoked  by  the  peaked  and  pointed 
hood  (capuccio)  which  they  wore.  The  story  of  the 
*Gueux  '  of  Holland  is  more  familiar  than  that  I  need 
more  than  allude  to  it. 

A  *  Premier  '  or  '  Prime  Minister,'  though  unknown 
to  the  law  of  England,  is  at  present  one  of  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  country.  The  acknowledged  leader- 
ship of  one  member  in  the  Government  is  a  fact  of 
only  gradual  growth  in  our  constitutional  history, 
but  one  in  which  the  nation  has  entirely  acquiesced— 
nor  is  there  anything  invidious  now  in  the  name. 
But  in  what  spirit  the  Parliamentary  Opposition, 
having  coined  the  term,  applied  it  first  to  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,  is  plain  from  some  words  of  his  spoken  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  Feb.  II,  1742  :  *'  having  in- 
vested me  with  a  kind  of  mock  dignity,  and  styled 
me  a  Prime  Minister,  they  [the  Opposition]  impute 
to  me  an  unpardonable  abuse  of  the  chimerical 
authority  which  they  only  created  and  conferred." 

Now  of  these  titles  some  undoubtedly,  like  '  capu- 
chin '  which  I  instanced  just  now,  stand  in  no  living 
connection  with  those  that  bear  them  ;  and  such 
names,  though  seldom  without  their  instruction,  yet 
plainly  are  not  so  instructive  as  others  in  which  the 
innermost  heart  of  the  thing  named  so  utters  itself, 
that,  having  mastered  the  name,  we  have  placed  our- 
selves at  the  central  point,  from  which  best  to  master 
everything  besides.  It  is  thus  with  '  Gnostic  '  and 
*  Gnosticism  :  '  in  the  prominence  given  to  gnosis  or 
knowledge,  as  opposed  to  faith,  Hes  the  key  to  the 
8* 


178  ON  THE   HISTORY   IN  WORDS. 

whole  system.  The  Greek  Church  has  loved  ever  to 
style  itself  the  Holy  '  Orthodox  '  Church,  the  Latin, 
the  Holy  '  Catholic '  Church.  Follow  up  the 
thoughts  which  these  words  suggest.  What  a  world 
of  teaching  they  contain  ;  above  all  when  brought 
into  direct  comparison  and  opposition  one  with  the 
other.  How  does  all  which  is  innermost  in  the 
Greek  and  Roman  mind  unconsciously  reveal  itself 
here  ;  the  Greek  Church  regarding  as  its  chief  blazon 
that  its  speculation  is  right,  the  Latin  that  its  empire 
is  universal.  Nor  indeed  is  it  merely  the  Greek  and 
Latin  Churches  which  utter  themselves  here,  but 
Greece  and  Rome  in  their  deepest  distinctions,  as 
these  existed  from  the  beginning.  The  key  to  the 
whole  history,  Pagan  as  well  as  Christian,  of  each 
is  in  these  words.  We  can  understand  how  the  one 
established  a  dominion  in  the  region  of  the  mind 
which  shall  never  be  overthrown,  the  other  founded 
an  empire  in  the  world  whose  visible  effects  shall 
never  be  done  away.  This  is  an  illustrious  example  ; 
but  I  am  bold  to  affirm  that,  in  their  degree,  all  par- 
ties, religious  and  political,  are  known  by  names  that 
will  repay  study  ;  by  names,  to  understand  which 
will  bring  us  far  to  an  understanding  of  their  strength 
and  their  weakness,  their  truth  and  their  error,  the 
idea  and  intention  according  to  which  they  wrought. 
Thus  take  those  which  have   arisen   up   in   England. 

*  Puritans,*  'Fifth-Monarchy  Men,'  *  Seekers,'  '  Lev- 
ellers,'    *  Independents,'     *  Friends,'     '  Rationalists,' 

*  Latitudinarians,'  *  Freethinkers,'  these  titles,  with 
many  more,  have  each  its  significance  ;  and  would 
you  understand  what  any  of  these  schools  and  par- 


HISTORY   OF   COMMERCE   IN   WORDS.  1/9 

ties  intended,  you  must  first  understand  what  they 
were  called.  From  this  you  must  start  ;  even  as  you 
must  bring  back  to  this  whatever  further  knowledge 
you  may  acquire  ;  putting  your  later  gains,  if  possi- 
ble, in  subordination  to  the  name  ;  at  all  events  in 
connection  and  relation  with  it. 

You  will  often  be  able  to  glean  knowledge  from 
the  names  of  things,  if  not  as  important  as  all  this, 
yet  interesting  in  its  way.  What  a  record  of  inven- 
tions, how  much  the  history  of  commerce  is  preserved 
in  names.  Thus  the  *  magnet '  has  its  name  from 
Magnesia,  a  district  of  Thessaly ;  this  same,  or  else 
another  in  Asia  Minor  of  the  same  name,  yielding 
the  medicinal  earth  so  called.  The  *  baldachin '  or 
'  baudekin  '  is  from  Baldacco,  the  Italian  form  of 
the  medieval  name  of  Babylon,  from  which  city  the 
costly  silk  which  furnished  this  canopy  originally 
came.  The  '  bayonet '  suggests,  though  it  is  possi- 
bly here  in  error,  that  it  was  first  made  at  Bayonne — 
the  'bilbo,'  a  finely  tempered  Spanish  blade,  at 
Bilboa— the  '  carronade  '  at  the  Carron  Ironworks  in 
Scotland — ^  worsted  '  that  it  was  spun  at  a  village  so 
called  (in  the  neighborhood  of  Norwich) — '  sarsnet ' 
that  it  is  a  Saracen  manufacture — '  cambric  '  that  it 
reached  us  from  Cambray — *  crape  '  from  Cyprus 
(the  earlier  form  of  the  word  is  '  cypres  ') — '  copper  ' 
that  it  too  drew  its  name  from  the  same  island,  so 
richly  furnished  with  mines  of  this  metal — '  diaper ' 
that  it  came  from  Ypres — '  fustian  '  from  Fostat,  a 
suburb  of  Cairo — '  frieze  '  from  Friesland — *  silk  '  or 

*  sericus  '  from  the  land  of  the  Seres  or  Chinese — 

*  damask  '  from  Damascus  (the  '  damson  '  also  is  the 


l80  ON  THE   HISTORY   IN   WORDS. 

*  damascene  *  or  Damascus  plum) — *  arras  '  from 
Arras — *  shalloon  '  from  Chalons — *  jane  '  from  Genoa 
— '  dimity  '  from  Damietta — *  gauze  '  from  Gaza  ; 
The  fashion  of  the  *  cravat '  was  borrowed  from  the 
Croats,  or  Crabats,  as  this  wild  irregular  soldiery  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War  used  to  be  called.  The  '  big- 
gen,'  a  plain  cap  often  mentioned  by  our  early 
writers,  was  first  worn  by  the  Beguines,  communi- 
ties of  pietist  women  in  the  middle  ages.  The  *  dal- 
matic '  was  a  garment  whose  fashion  was  borrowed, 
or  supposed  to  be  borrowed,  from  Dalmatia.  Eng- 
land now  sends  her  calicoes  and  muslins  to  India  and 
the  East ;  yet  these  words  give  standing  witness  that 
we  once  imported  them  from  thence  ;  for  *  calico '  is 
from  Calicut,  that  is,  Calcutta,  and  *  muslin  '  from 
Moussul,  a  city  in  Asiatic  Turkey.  *  Cordwain  ' 
or  *  cordovan  '  is  from  Cordova — *  delf '  from  Delft — ■ 
'  indigo  '  (indicum)  from  India — '  gamboge  '  from 
Gambodia — '  agate  '  from  a  Sicilian  river.  Achates — 
the  *  turquoise  '  is  from  Turkey — the  *  chalcedony  * 
or  onyx  from  Chalcedon — '  jet '  from  the  river  Gages 
in  Lycia,  where  this  black  stone  is  found.*  *  Rhu- 
barb '  is  a  corruption  of  Rha  barbarum,  the  root  from 
the  savage  banks  of  the  Rha  or  Volga — *  jalap'  is 
from  Jalapa,  a  town  in  Mexico — *  tobacco  *  from  the 
island  Tobago — *  macassar '  oil  from  a  small  Malay 
kingdom  so  named  in  the  Eastern  Archipelago^ — 
'  parchment'  from  Pergamum — *  majolica'  from  Ma- 
jorca— *  faience  '  from  a  town  of  the  same  name,  the 


♦In  Holland's   P/hty  the  Greek    form  '  ojaojates' is   still   retained, 
though  he  calls  it  more  commonly  •  jeat '  or  'geat.' 


ORIGIN  OF  NAMES.  l8l- 

Italian  Faenza.  The  '  bezant,'  so  often  named  in  our 
early  literature,  is  a  coin  of  Byzantium  ;  the  '  guinea* 
was  originally  coined  (in  1663)  of  gold  brought  from 
the   African  coast   so   called ;    the   pound   or  penny 

*  sterling  *  was  a  certain  weight  of  bullion  according 
to  the  standard  of  the  Easterlings,  or  Eastern  merch- 
ants from  the  Hanse  Towns  on  the  Baltic.  *  Ermine  ' 
is,  or  is  taken  to  be,  the  spoil  of  the  Armenian  rat ; 
the  *  spaniel  '  is  from  Spain,  or  perhaps  from  His- 
paniola  ;  the  '  barb '   is   a  steed  from  Barbary ;    the 

*  tarantula '  a  poisonous  spider,  common  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Tarentum.  '  Sherry,'  or  '  sherris,'  as 
Shakespeare  wrote  it,  is  sent  us  from  Xeres  ;  and 
'port'  from  Oporto.  The  'pheasant'  reached  us 
from  the  banks  of  the  Phasis  ;  the  '  bantam '  from  a 
Dutch  settlement  in  Java  so  called  ;  the  '  cherry ' 
was  brought  by  LucuUus  from  Cerasus,  a  city  in 
Pontus  ;  the  '  peach '  (persica,  declares  itself  a  Per- 
sian fruit ;  '  currants  '  are  mostly  shipped  at  Corinth  ; 
the  *  quince '  has  undergone  so  many  changes  in  its 
progress  through  Italian  and  French  to  us,  that  it 
hardly  retains  any  trace  of  Cydon  (malum  Cydoni- 
um),  a  town  of  Crete,  from  which  it  derives  its  name. 

*  Solecisms,'  though  they  hardly  have  a  right  to  a 
place  here,  are  from  Soloe,  an  Athenian  colony  in 
Cilicia,  whose  members  soon  forgot  the  Attic  refine- 
ment of  speech,  and  became  notorious  for  the  ungram- 
matical  Greek  which  they  talked. 

And  as  things  thus  keep  record  in  the  names  which 
they  bear  of  the  quarters  from  which  they  reached 
us,  so  also  will  they  often  do  of  the  persons  who,  as 
authors,  inventors,  or  discoverers,  or  in  some  other 


1 82  ON  THE  HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 

way,  stood  in  near  connection  with  them.  A  collec- 
tion in  any  language  of  all  the  names  of  persons  which 
have  since  become  names  of  things — from  nomina 
appellativa  have  become  nomina  realia — would  be 
very  curious  and  interesting.  I  will  enumerate  a 
few.  Where  the  matter  is  not  familiar  to  you,  it  will 
not  be  unprofitable  to  work  back  from  the  word  or 
thing  to  the  person,  and  to  learn  more  accurately  the 
connection  between  them. 

To  begin  with  mythical  antiquity — the  Chimaera 
has  given  us  'chimerical,'  Hermes  *  hermetic,'  Pan 

*  panic,'  Paean,  being  a  name  of  Apollo,  the  '  peony,' 
Tantalus  '  to  tantalize,'  Hercules  'herculean,'  Proteus 

*  protean,'  Vulcan  *  volcano  '  and  '  volcanic,'  and 
Daedalus  '  dedal,'  if  this  word,  on  the  authority  of 
Spenser  and  Shelley,  may  find  allowance  with  us. 
The  demi-god  Atlas  figures  with  a  world  upon  his 
shoulders  in  the  title-page,  so  at  least  I  am  told,  of 
the  first  edition  of  Mercator's  great  work  on  geogra- 
phy ;  and  has  in  this  way  lent  to  our  map-books  their 
name.  Gordius,  the  Phrygian  king  who  tied  that 
famous  'gordian'  knot  which  Alexander  cut,  will 
supply  a  natural  transition  from  mythical  to  histori- 
cal. Mausolus,  a  king  of  Caria,  has  left  us  *  mauso- 
leum/ Academus  '  academy,'  Epicurus  *  epicure,* 
Philip  of  Macedon  a  'philippic,'  being  such  a  dis- 
course as  Demosthenes  once  launched  against  the 
enemy  of  Greece,  and  Cicero  '  cicerone.'  Mithri- 
dates,  who  had  made  himself  poison-proof,  gave  us 
the  now  forgotten  word  *  mithridate  '  (Dryden)  for 
antidote  ;  as  from  Hippocrates  we  derived  *  hipocras,' 
or  '  ypocras/  often  occurring  in  our  early  poets,  be- 


PROPER   NAMES   BECOME   WORDS.  1 83 

ing  a  wine  supposed  to  be  mingled  after  the  great 
physician's  receipt.  Gentius,  a  king  of  Illyria,  gave 
his  name  to  the  plant  '  gentian/  having  been,  it  is 
said,  the  first  to  discover  its  virtues.*  A  grammar 
used  to  be  called  a  'donat'  or  *  donet '  (Chaucer), 
from  Donatus,  a  Roman  grammarian  of  the  fourth 
century,  whose  grammar  held  its  place  in  the  schools 
during  a  large  part  of  the  middle  ages  ;  just  as  in 
Switzerland  and  Germany  now  every  guide-book  is 
called  a  'Biideker.'  The  beggar  Lazarus,  perhaps 
an  historical  person,  has  given  us  '  lazar '  and  *  laza- 
retto ; '  Veronica  and  the  legend  connected  with  her 
name,  a  '  vernicle,'  being  a  napkin  with  the  Saviour's 
face  impressed  upon  it.  Our  *  pantaloons  '  are  from 
S.  Pantaleone  ;  he  was  the  patron  saint  of  the  Vene- 
tians, who  therefore  very  commonly  received  Panta- 
leon  as  their  Christian  name  ;  it  was  from  them  trans- 
ferred to  a  garment  which  they  much  affected.  Simon 
Magus  gave  us  '  simony ; '  which,  however,  is  not  a 
precise  reproduction  of  his  sin  as  recorded  in  Scrip- 
ture ;  '  dunce,'  as  we  have  seen,  is  derived  from  Duns 
Scotus  ;  while  there  is  a  legend  that  the  '  knot '  or 
sandpiper  is  named  from  Canute  or  Knute,  with 
whom  this  bird  was  a  special  favorite.  To  come  to 
more  modern  times,  and  not  pausing  at  Ben  Jonson's 
*  chaucerisms,'  Bishop  Hall's  *  scoganisms,'  frOm  Sco- 
gan,  Edward  the  Fourth's  jester,  or  his  '  aretinisms,' 
from  Aretin  ;  these  being  probably  not  intended  even 
by  their  authors  to  endure  ;  a  Roman  cobbler  named 
Pasquin  has  given  us  the  '  pasquil '  or  *  pasquinade ; ' 

*  Pliny,  J7.  N.  xxv.  34. 


1 84  ON  THE   HISTORY   IN  WORDS. 

*  patch,'  a  name  of  contempt,  not  unfrequent  in 
Shakespeare,  is  said  to  have  been  the  proper  name 
of  a  favorite  fool  of  Cardinal  Wolsey's  ;  and  Colonel 
Negus  in  Queen  Anne's  time  to  have  first  mixed  the 
beverage  which  goes  by  his  name.  Lord  Orrery  was 
the  first  for  whom  an  *  orrery '  was  constructed  ;  and 
Lord  Spencer  first  wore,  or  first  brought  into  fashion, 
a  *  spencer.'  Dahl,  a  Swede,  introduced  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  *  dahlia  ; '  the  '  fuchsia  '  is  named  after 
Fuchs,  a  German  botanist  of  the  sixteenth  century ; 
the  *  magnolia '  after  Magnol,  a  distinguished  French 
botanist  of  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  ;  the  *  ca- 
meUia '  was  introduced  into  Europe  from  Japan  in 
173 1  by  Camel,  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

*  Quassia '  derives  its  name  from  a  negro  sorcerer  of 
Surinam,  who  in  1730  discovered  its  properties,  and 
after  whom  it  was  called.  A  French  Protestant  refu- 
gee, Tabinet  by  name,  first  made  *  tabinet '  in  Dublin ; 
another  Frenchman,  the  ebenist  Boule,  in  the  time 
of  Lewis  the  Fourteenth,  gave  his  name  to  *  buhl ' 
work  ;  while  yet  another,  Goulard,  a  physician  of 
Montpellier,  gave  his  to  the  soothing  lotion,  not  un- 
known in  our  nurseries.  In  *  /r^w-road,'  the  second 
syllable  of  Owtram,'  the  name  of  the  inventor,  sur- 
vives. The  '  tontine  '  was  conceived  by  Tonti,  an 
Italian  ;  another  Italian,  Galvani,  first  noted  the  phe- 
nomena of  animal  electricity  or  *  galvanism  ; '  while  a 
third,  Volta,  gave  a  name  to  the  'voltaic'  battery. 
It  was  a  Corsican  engineer,  named  Martello,  who  sug- 
gested to  Pitt  the  *  martello '  towers  which  stud  some 
parts  of  our  coast.  '  Nicotine,'  the  poison  recently 
drawn  from  tobacco,  goes  back  for  its  title  to  Nicot, 


PROPER   NAMES   BECOME   WORDS.  185 

a  physician,  who  first  introduced  the  tobacco-plant 
to  the  general  notice  of  Europe.  Dolomieu,  a  French 
geologist,  first  called  attention  to  a  peculiar  formation 
of  rocks  in  Eastern  Tyrol,  called  '  dolomites  '  after 
him.  *  Martinet,'  *  macintosh,'  *  doyly,'  *  brougham,' 
*  to  mesmerize,'  '  to  macadamize,'  *  to  burke,'  are  all 
names  of  persons  or  formed  from  persons,  and  then 
transferred  to  things,  on  the  ground  of  some  sort  of 
connection  between  the  one  and  the  other. ^  I  may 
add  '  guillotine,'  though  Dr.  Guillotin  did  not  invent 
this    instrument   of  death,   even   as   it  is   a  baseless 

*  Several  other  such  words  we  have  in  common  with  the  French. 
Of  their  own  they  have  'sardanapalisme,'  any  piece  of  profuse  luxury, 
from  Sardanapalus ;  for  'lambiner,'  to  dally  or  loiter  over  a  task,  they 
are  indebted  to  Denis  Lambin,  a  worthy  Greek  scholar  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  but  accused  of  sluggish  movement  and  wearisome  diffuseness 
in  style.  Every  reader  of  Pascal's  Provincial  Letters  will  remember 
Escobar,  the  great  casuist  of  the  Jesuits,  whose  convenient  subterfuges 
for  the  relaxation  of  the  moral  law  have  there  been  made  famous.  To 
the  notoriety  which  he  thus  acquired,  he  owes  his  introduction  into  the 
French  language  ;  where  *  escobarder  '  is  used  in  the  sense  of  to  equivo- 
cate, and  '  escobarderie '  of  subterfuge  or  equivocation,  A  pale  green 
color  is  in  French  called  '  celadon  '  from  a  personage  of  this  name,  of  a 
feeble  zxi^fade  tenderness,  who  figures  in  Astr'te^  a  famous  romance  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  An  unpopular  minister  of  finance,  M,  de 
Silhouette,  unpopular  because  he  sought  to  cut  down  unnecessary  ex- 
penses in  the  State,  lent  his  name  to  the  slight  and  thus  cheap  black 
outline  portrait  called  a  'silhouette'  (Sismondi,  iy/j/,  des  Fran^ais, 
vol,  xix.  •  pp.  94,  95).  In  the  '  mansarde '  roof  we  are  reminded  of 
Mansart,  the  architect  who  introduced  it.  In  *  marivaudage  '  the  name 
of  Marivaux  is  bound  up,  who  was  noted  for  the  affected  euphuism 
which  goes  by  this  name ;  very  much  as  the  sophist  Gorgias  gave 
yopyia^eiv  to  the  Greek.  The  point  of  contact  between  the  *  fiacre ' 
and  S,  Fiacre  is  well  known.  Hackney  carriages,  when  first  estab- 
lished in  Paris,  waited  for  their  hiring  in  the  court  of  an  hotel  which 
was  adorned  with  an  image  of  the  Scottish  saint. 


1 86  ON  THE  HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 

legend  that  he  died  by  it.  Some  improvements  in 
it  he  made,  and  it  thus  happened  that  it  was  called 
after  him. 

Nor  less  shall  we  find  history,  at  all  events  literary 
history,  in  the  noting  of  the  popular  characters  in 
books,  from  whose  names  words  which  have  passed 
into  common  speech  have  been  derived.  Thus  from 
Homer  we  have  *  mentor '  for  a  monitor  ;  *  stentori- 
an '  for  loud-voiced ;  and  inasmuch  as,  with  all  of 
Hector's  nobleness,  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  big 
talk  about  him,  he  has  given  us  *  to  hector  ;  '  *  while 
the  medieval  romances  about  the  siege  of  Troy  as- 
cribe to  Pandarus  that  shameful  ministry  out  of 
which  his  name  has  passed  into  the  words  *  to  pan- 
der'  and  'pandarism.'  '  Rodomontade'  is  from  Rodo- 
monte,  a  hero  of  Boiardo  ;  who  yet  does  not  bluster 
and  boast,  as  the  word  founded  on  his  name  would 
seem  to  imply ;  adopted  by  Ariosto,  it  was  by  him 
changed  into  Rodamonte ;  *  thrasonical '  is  from 
Thraso,  the  braggart  of  the  Roman  Comedy.  Cer- 
vantes has  given  us  *  quixotic  ;  *  Swift  *  liliputian  ;' 
to  Moliere  the  French  language  owes  *  tartuffe '  and' 
•  tartufiferie.'  *  Reynard  '  with  us  is  a  duplicate  for 
fox,  while  in  French  ^  renard '  has  quite  excluded  the 
old  '  volpils/  being  originally  no  more  than  the  prop- 
er name  of  the  fox-hero,  the  vulpine  Ulysses,  in  that 
famous  beast-epic  of  the  middle  ages,  Reineke  Fuchs  ; 
the  immense  popularity  of  which  we  gather  from 
many  evidences — from  none  more  clearly  than  from 
this.     *  Chanticleer '  is  the  name  of  the  cock,   and 

♦  See  Col.  Mure,  Language  and  Literature  of  Ancietit  Greece^  voL 
i.  p.  350- 


ERRORS  IN  NAMES.  18/ 

*  Bruin '  of  the  bear  in  the  same  poem.*  These  have 
not  made  fortune  to  the  same  extent  of  actually  put- 
ting out  of  use  names  which  before  existed,  but  still 
have  become  quite  familiar  to  us  all. 

Occasionally  a  name  will  embody  and  give  per- 
manence to  an  error ;  as  when  in  '  America '  the  dis- 
covery of  the  New  World,  which  belonged  to  Colum- 
bus, is  ascribed  to  another  eminent  discoverer,  but 
one  who  had  no  title  to  this  honor,  even  as  he  was 
entirely  guiltless  of  any  attempt  to  usurp  it  for  him- 
self.f  Our  'turkeys'  are  not  from  Turkey,  as  their 
name  seems  to  say,  and  as  was  assumed  by  those 
who  imposed  that  name,  but  from  that  new  world 
where  alone  they  are  native.  This  error  the  French 
in  another  shape  repeat,  calling  it  *  dinde,'  originally 

*  poulet  d' Inde^  or  Indian  fowl.  There  lies  in  *  gip- 
sy,'  or  Egyptian,  the  assumption  that  Egypt  was  the 
original  home  of  this  strange  people  ;  as  was  widely 
believed  when  they  made  their  first  appearance  in 
Europe  early  in  the  fifteenth  century.  That  this, 
however,  was  a  mistake,  their  language  leaves  no 
doubt ;  proclaiming  as  it  does  that  they  are  wander- 
ers from  a  more  distant  East,  an  outcast  tribe  from 
Hindostan.  '  Bohemians,'  as  they  are  called  by  the 
French,  testifies  to  an  error  of  a  like  character,  to  the 
fact  that  at  their  first  apparition  they  were  supposed 

*  See  Genin,  Des  Variations  du  Langage  Fran^ais^  p,  12. 

\  Humboldt  has  abundantly  shown  this  {Kosinos,  vol,  ii.  note  457). 
He  ascribes  its  general  reception  to  its  introduction  into  a  popular 
work  on  geography,  published  in  1507.  The  subject  has  also  been  very 
carefully  treated  by  Major,  Life  of  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator^  186S, 
pp.  382-388. 


1 88  ON  THE   HISTORY   IN   WORDS. 

by  the  common  people  in  France  to  be  the  expelled 
Hussites  of  Bohemia. 

Where  words  have  not  embodied  an  error,  it  will 
yet  sometimes  happen  that  the  sound  or  spelling  of 
a  word  will  to  us  suggest  a  wrong  explanation, 
against  which  in  these  studies  it  will  need  to  be  on 
our  guard.  Most  of  us  have  been  tempted  to  put 
'domus'  and  '  dominus  '  into  a  connection  which 
they  do  not  really  possess.  There  has  been  a  stage 
in  most  boys'  geographical  knowledge,  when  they 
have  taken  for  granted  that  'Jutland  '  was  so  called 
not  because  it  was  the  land  of  the  Jutes,  but  on  ac- 
count o(  its  Jutting  out  into  the  sea  in  so  remarkable 
a  manner.  At  a  much  later  period  of  their  educa- 
tion, *  Aborigines,'  being  the  proper  name  of  an  Ital- 
ian tribe,  might  very  easily  lead  them  astray.*  The 
Gulf  of  Lyons  we  most  of  us  put  in  connection  with 
the  city  of  the  same  name.  We  are  certainly  some- 
what surprised  that  a  name  should  have  been  drawn 
from  a  city  so  remote  and  so  far  inland  ;  but  accept 
this  as  a  fact  notwithstanding.  There  is  indeed  no 
connection  whatever  between  the  two.  In  old  texts 
it  is  generally  called  shms  Gallicus  ;  but  in  the  four- 
teenth century  a  few  writers  began  to  call  it  Siujis 
Leonis,  the  Gulf  of  the  Lion,  possibly  from  the  fierce- 
ness of  its  winds  and  waves,  but  at  any  rate  by  a 
name  having  nothing  to  do  with  Lugdunum  on  the 
Rhone.  The  Oak,  in  Greek  8/91)9,  plays  no  inconsider- 
able part  in  the  ritual  of  the  Druids  ;  it  is  not  there- 
fore wonderful  if  most  students  at  one  time  in  their 

*  See  Pauly,  Emydop.  s.  v.  Latium. 


FALSELY-ASSUMED   DERIVATION.  1 89 

lives  have  put  the  two  in  etymological  connection. 
The  Greeks,  who  with  so  characteristic  a  vanity  as- 
sumed that  the  key  to  the  meaning  of  words  in  all 
languages  was  to  be  found  in  their  own^  did  so  of 
course.  So,  too,  there  have  not  been  wanting  those 
who  have  traced  in  the  name  '  Jove '  a  heathen  remi- 
niscence of  the  awful  name  of  Jehovah ;  while  yet, 
however  specious  this  may  seem,  on  closer  scrutiny 
the  words  declare  that  they  have  no  connection  with 
one  another,  any  more  than  have  '  lapetus  '  and 
'  Japheth,'  or,  I  may  add,  '  God '  and  '  good,'  which 
yet  by  a  praise-worthy  moral  instinct  men  can  hardly 
refrain  from  putting  into  an  etymological  relation 
with  each  other. 

Sometimes  a  falsely-assumed  derivation  has  re- 
acted upon  and  modified  the  spelling.  Thus  the 
name  of  the  Celtic  tribe  whom  we  call  the  *  Picts ' 
would  not  have  come  down  to  us  exactly  in  this  form 
but  for  the  notion  which  early  got  abroad,  that  they 
were  so  called  from  their  custom  of  tattooing  or  paint- 
ing their  bodies,  that  in  fact  *  Pict '  meant  "the 
painted."  This  in  itself  is  most  unlikely.  We  can 
quite  conceive  the  Romans  giving  this  name  to  the 
first  barbarous  people  they  encountered,  who  were 
in  the  habit  of  thus  painting  themselves.  For  a  cus- 
tom like  this,  forcing  itself  on  the  eye,  and  impressing 
itself  on  the  imagination,  exactly  supplies  the  motive 
which  gives  birth  to  a  name.  But  after  they  had 
been  long  familiar  with  the  tribes  of  southern  Britain, 
among  whom  this  painting  or  tattooing  was  equally 
in  use,  it  is  inconceivable  that  they  should  have  ap^ 
plied  it  to  a  northern  tribe,  with  which  they  first  came 


190  ON  THE  HISTORY   IN  WORDS. 

in  contact  at  a  far  later  day.  The  name  is  more 
probably  the  original  Celtic  one,  *  peichta,'  or  '  the 
fighters,'  slightly  modified  to  give  it  a  Latin  shape 
and  sound  in  the  mouths  of  the  Romans.  It  may 
have  been  the  same  with  '  hurricane. '  In  the  tearing 
up  and  hurrying  away  of  the  canes  in  the  sugar  plan 
tations  by  this  West  Indian  tornado,  many  have  seen 
an  explanation  of  the  name  ;  just  in  the  same  way 
as  the  Latin  '  calamitas '  has  been  derived  from  *  cal- 
amus,' the  stalk  of  the  corn.  In  both  cases  the  ety- 
mology is  faulty;  *  hurricane,'  probably  a  Carib 
word  at  the  first,  is  only  a  transplanting  into  our  tongue 
of  the  Spanish  '  hurracan  '  or  the  French  '  ouragan.' 
It  is  a  signal  evidence  of  the  conservative  powers  of 
language,  that  we  may  continually  trace  in  speech 
the  record  of  customs  and  states  of  society  which 
have  now  passed  so  entirely  away  as  to  survive  in 
these  words  alone.  For  example,  a  *  stipulation'  or 
agreement  is  so  called,  as  many  afnrm,  from  '  stipula,' 
a  straw  ;  and  tells  of  a  Roman  custom,  that  when 
two  persons  would  make  a  mutual  engagement  with 
one  another,*  they  would  break  a  straw  between 
them.  We  all  know  what  fact  of  English  history  is 
laid  up  in  '  curfew,'  or  '  couvre-feu.'  The  *  limner,* 
or  'lumineur'  (luminatore),  throws  us  back  on  a 
time  when  the  illumination  of  manuscripts  was  a 
leading   occupation    of   the   painter.     '  Thrall '    and 

*  thraldom  *  descend  to  us  from  a  period  when  it  was 
the  custom  to  thrill  or  drill  the  ear  of  a  slave  in  token 

*  See  on  this  disputed  point,  and  on  the  relation  between  the  Latin 

*  stipulatio '  and  the  old  German  custom  not  altogether  dissimilar,  J. 
Grimm,  Deutsche  Rechtsalterthiimer^  pp.  121,  sqq. 


RECORD   OF   CUSTOMS   IN   WORDS.  191 

of  servitude  ;  a  custom  in  use  among  the  Jews  (Deut. 
XV.  17),  and  retained  by  our  Anglo-Saxon  forefathers 
who  were  wont  thus  to  pierce  at  the  church  door  the 
ears  of  their  bond -servants.  By  'lumber,'  we  are, 
or  might  be,  taught  that  Lombards  were  the  first 
pawnbrokers,  even  as  they  were  the  first  bankers,  in 
England  ;  a  '  lumber '-room  being  a  *  lombard  '-room 
or  a  room  where  the  pawnbroker  stored  his  pledges.* 
Nor  need  I  do  more  than  rerpind  you  that  in  our 
common  phrase  of  "  signing  our  name,"  we  preserve 
a  record  of  a  time  when  such  first  rudiments  of  educa- 
tion as  the  power  of  writing  were  the  portion  of  so 
few,  that  it  was  not  as  now  an  exception,  but  the 
custom  of  most  persons  to  make  their  mark  or  '  sign  ; ' 
great  barons  and  kings  themselves  not  being  ashamed 
to  set  this  sign  or  cross  to  the  weightiest  documents. 
To  '  subscribe '  the  name  would  more  accurately  ex- 
press what  now  we  do.  As  often  as  we  term  arith- 
metic the  science  of  *  calculation,'  we  allude  to  that 
rudimental  stage  in  the  science  of  numbers,  when 
pebbles  (calculi)  were  used,  as  now  among  savage 
tribes  they  often  are,  to  help  the  practice  of  count- 
ing ;  the  Greeks  did  the  same  in  a  word  of  theirs 
{yfrr](l)L^6Lv)  ;  while  in  another  {TrefjuTrd^eiv)  they  kept 
record  of  a  period  when  the:  five  fingers  were  so  em- 
ployed. *  Expend,'  '  expense,'  tell  us  that  money 
was  once  weighed  out  (Gen.  xxxiii.  16),  not  counted 
out  as  now  ;  '  estimate  '  and  '  estimation  '  that  the 
first  money  which  the  Romans  knew  was  of  brass  (aes, 
aestimatio) ;   *  pecunia,'  '  peculatus,'*  fee  '  (vieh)  keep 

*  See  my  Select  Glossary^  g.  v.'  Lumber. 


192  ON   THE   HISTORY   IN   WORDS. 

record  all  of  a  time  when  cattle  were  the  main  circu- 
lating medium;  *  rupee'  in  another  quarter  of  the 
world  does  the  same.  *  In  '  library'  we  preserve  the 
fact  that  books  were  written  on  the  bark  (liber)  of 
trees  ;  in  '  volume  '  that  they  were  rolls  ;  in  !  book ' 
itself  that  they  were  often  beechen  tablets  ;  in  '  paper,' 
that  the  Egyptian  papyrus,  *'  the  paper  reeds  by  the 
brooks,"  furnished  at  one  time  the  chief  material  on 
which  they  were  written. 

Names  thus  so  often  surviving  things,  we  have  no 
right  to  turn  an  etymology  into  an  argument.  There 
was  a  notable  attempt  to  do  this  in  the  controversy 
so  earnestly  carried  on  between  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Churches  concerning  the  bread,  whether  it  should  be 
leavened  or  unleavened,  that  was  used  at  the  Table 
of  the  Lord.  Those  of  the  Eastern  Church  constantly 
urged  that  the  Greek  word  for  bread  (and  in  Greek 
was  the  authoritative  record  of  the  first  institution  of 
this  sacrament),  implied,  according  to  its  root,  that 
which  was  raised  or  lifted  up  ;  not,  therefore,  to  use 
a  modern  term,  *  sad '  or  set,  or,  in  other  words,  un- 
leavened bread,  but  such  rather  as  had  undergone 
the  process  of  fermentation.  But  even  if  the  ety- 
mology on  which  they  reHed  (a/oro?  from  at/xw,  to  raise) 
had  been  as  certain  as  it  is  questionable,  they  could 
draw  no  argument  of  the  slightest  worth  from  so  re- 
mote an  etymology,  and  one  which  had  so  long  fallen 
out  of  the  consciousness  of  those  who  employed  the 
word. 

Theories  too,  which  long  since  were  utterly  re- 
nounced, have  yet  left  their  traces  behind  them. 
Thus  '  good   humor,'  *  bad  humor,'  *  humors,'  and^ 


MYTHOLOGY   IN   WORDS.  I93 

strangest  contradiction  of  all,  '  dry  humor,'  rest  alto- 
gether on  a  now  exploded,  but  a  very  old  and  largely 
accepted,  theory  of  medicine  ;  according  to  which 
there  were  four  principal  moistures  or  *  humors  '  in 
the  natural  body,  on  the  due  proportion  and  combi- 
nation of  which  the  disposition  alike  of  body  and 
mind  depended.*  Our  present  use  of 'temper'  has 
its  origin  in  the  same  theory ;  the  due  admixture,  or 
right  tempering,  of  these  humors  gave  what  was 
called  the  happy  temper,  or  mixture,  which,  thus 
existing  inwardly,  manifested  itself  also  outwardly  ; 
while  '  distemper,'  which  we  still  employ  in  the  sense 
of  sickness,  was  that  evil  frame  either  of  a  man's 
body  or  his  mind  (for  it  was  used  of  both)  which  had 
its  rise  in  an  unsuitable  mingling  of  these  humors. 
In  these  instances,  as  in  many  more,  the  great  streams 
of  thought  and  feeling  have  changed  their  course, 
flowing  now  in  quite  other  channels  from  those  which 
once  they  filled,  but  have  left  these  words  as  abiding 
memorials  of  the  channels  in  which  once  they  ran. 

Other  singular  examples  we  have  of  the  way  in 
which  the  record  of  old  errors,  themselves  dismissed 
long  ago,  may  yet  survive  in  language — being  bound 
up  in  words  which  grew  into  use  when  those  errors 
found  credit,  and  which  maintain  their  currency  still. 
The  mythology  which  Saxon  or  Dane  brought  with 
them  from  their  German  or  Scandinavian  homes  is  as 
much  extinct  for  us  as  are  the  Lares,  Larvae,  and 
Lemures  of  heathen  Rome  ;  yet  the  deposit  it  has 
permanently  left  behind  it  in  the  English  language  is 

*  See  the  Prologue  to  Ben  Jonson's  Every  Man  out  of  his  Humor. 

9 


194  ON  THE  HISTORY   IN   WORDS. 

not  inconsiderable.    '  Lubber,'  *  dwarf,'  '  oaf,'  *  droll,* 

*  wight,'  *  puck,'  *  urchin,'  *  hag,'  '  night-mare,'  *  gra- 
mary,'  '  Old  Nick,'  '  changeling  '  (wechselkind),  sug- 
gest themselves,  as  all  bequeathed  to  us  by  that  old 
Teutonic  demonology.  No  one  now  puts  any  faith 
in  astrology,  counts  that  the  planet  under  which  a 
man  is  born  will  affect  his  temperament,  make  him 
for  life  of  a  disposition  grave  or  gay,  lively  or  severe. 
Yet  our  language  affirms  as  much ;  for  we  speak  of 
men   as   *  jovial,'    or    *  saturnine,'    or    'mercurial' — 

*  jovial,'  as  being  born  under  the  planet  Jupiter  or 
Jove,  which  was  the  joyfullest  star,  and  of  happiest 
augury  of  all :  *  a  gloomy  severe  person  is  said  to  be 

*  saturnine,'  born,  that  is,  under  the  planet  Saturn, 
who  makes  those  that  own  his  influence,  being  born 
when  he  was  in  the  ascendant,  grave  and  stern  as 
himself :  another  we  call  *  mercurial,'  or  light-hearted, 
as  those  born  under  the  planet  Mercury  were  ac- 
counted to  be.  The  same  faith  in  the  influence  of 
the  stars  survives  in  *  disastrous,'  'ill-starred,'  'as- 
cendancy,' 'lord  of  the  ascendant,'  and,  indeed,  in 
'  influence  '  itself.  What  a  record  of  old  speculations, 
old  certainly  as  Aristotle,  and  not  yet  exploded  in 
the  time  of  Milton, f  does  the  word  'quintessence' 
contain.  Again,  what  curious  legends  belong  to  the 
'  sardonic,' t  or  '  Sardinian,'  laugh  ;  a  laugh  caused,  as 
was  supposed,  by  a  plant  growing  in   Sardinia,   of 

*  'Jovial'  in  Shakespeare's  time  (see  Cytnbeline^  Act  5,  Sc.  4)  had 
not  forgotten  its  connection  with  Jove, 
f  S6e  Paradise  Lost,  iii.  714-719. 

See  an  excellent  history  of  tliis  word  in  Rost  and  Palm's  Creek 
\iconf  s.  V.  ffopddvios. 


\* 


DETACHED   ETYMOLOGIES.  IQS 

which  they  who  ate,  died  laughing  ;  to  the  *  barna- 
cle '  goose,*  to  the  *  amethyst,'  esteemed,  as  the 
word  implies,  a  preventive  or  antidote  of  drunken- 
ness ;  and  to  other  words  not  a  few,  which  are  em- 
ployed by  us  still. 

A  question  presents  itself  here,  one  which  is  not 
merely  speculative  ;  for  it  has  before  now  become  a 
veritable  case  of  conscience  with  some  whether  they 
ought  to  use  words  which  originally  rested  on,  and  so 
seem  still  to  affirm,  some  superstition  or  untruth. 
This  question  has  practically  settled  itself;  the  words 
will  keep  their  ground  :  but  further,  they  have  a  right 
to  do  this  ;  for  no  word  need  be  considered  so  to  root 
itself  in  its  etymology,  and  to  draw  its  sap  and 
strength  from  thence,  that  it  cannot  detach  itself  from 
this,  and  acquire  the  rights  of  an  independent  exist- 
ence. And  thus  our  weekly  newspapers  commit  no 
absurdity  in  calling  themselves  y^/^r-nals,'  or  '  diur- 
nals  ; '  nor  we  when  we  name  that  a  'journey  '  which 
occupied  not  one,  but  several,  days.  We  involve 
ourselves  in  no  real  contradiction,  speaking  of  a 
*  quarantine '  of  five,  ten,  or  any  number  of  days 
more  or  fewer  \\\^xv  forty  ;  or  of  a  population  '  decim- 
ated '  by  a  plague,  though  a  tenth  of  it  has  not  per- 
ished. A  stone  coffin  may  be  still  a  '  sarcophagus,' 
without  thereby  implying  that  it  has  any  special 
property  of  consuming  the  flesh  of  bodies  which  are 
laid  within  it.  In  like  manner  the  wax  of  our  *  can- 
dles '  (*  candela,'   from  *  candeo ')    is  not  necessarily 


see 


*  For  a  full  and  most  interesting  study  on  this  very  curious  legend, 
Max  Miiller's  Lectures  on  Language^  vol.  ii.  pp.  533-551. 


196  ON   THE   HISTORY  IN   WORDS. 

white ;  our  '  rubrics  '  are  such  still,  though  seldom 
printed  in  red  ink  ;  neither  need  our  '  miniatures ' 
quit  their  name,  though  they  are  no  longer  painted 
with  minium  or  carmine  ;  our  *  surplice  '  is  not  usu- 
ally worn  over  an  under- garment  of  skins  ;  nor  are 

*  haversacks '  sacks  for  the  carrying  of  oats  ;  there 
are  *  palaces  '  which  are  not  built  on  the  Palatine  Hill ; 
and  *  nausea '  which  is  not  ^^^-sickness.  I  remember 
once  asking  a  class  of  school-children,  whether  an 
announcement  which  during  one  very  hard  winter  ap- 
peared in  the  papers,  of  a  '  white  black\Ar6. '  having 
been  shot,  was  correct,  or  self-contradictory  and  ab- 
surd. The  less  thoughtful  members  of  the  class  in- 
stantly pronounced  against  it ;  while  after  a  little 
consideration,  two  or  three  made  answer  that  it  was 
perfectly  correct,  that,  while  no  doubt  the  bird  had 
originally  obtained  this  name  from  its  blackness,  yet 

*  blackbird '  was  now  the  name  of  a  species,  and  a 
name  so  cleaving  to  it,  as  not  to  be  forfeited,  even 
when  the  blackness  had  quite  disappeared.  We  do 
not  question  the  right  of  the  '  New  Forest '  to  retain 
this  title,  though  it  has  now  stood  for  eight  hundred 
years  ;  nor  of  *  Naples '  to  be  Neiv  City  (Neapolis) 
still,  after  an  existence  three  or  four  times  as  long. 

It  must,  then,  be  esteemed  a  piece  of  ethical  prud- 
ery, and  an  ignorance  of  the  laws  which  languages 
obey,  when  the  early  Quakers  refused  to  employ  the 
names  commonly  given  to  the  days  of  the  week,  and 
substituted  for  these,  '  first  day,*  '  second  day,'  and 
so  on.  This  they  did,  as  is  well  known,  on  the 
ground  that  it  became  not  Christian  men  to  give  that 
sanction  to  idolatry  which  was  involved  in  the  ordi- 


NEEDLESS   SCRUPLES   ABOUT  WORDS.  I97 

nary  style — as  though  every  time  they  spoke  of 
Wednesday  they  were  rendering  homage  to  Woden, 
of  Thursday  to  Thor,  of  Friday  to  Freya,  and  thus 
with  the  rest  ;*  or  at  all  events  recognizing  their  ex- 
istence. Now  it  is  quite  intelligible  that  the  early 
Christians,  living  in  the  midst  of  a  still  rampant 
heathenism,  should  have  objected,  as  we  know  they 
did,  to  *  dies  So/is/  or  Sunday,  to  express  the  first 
day  of  the  week,  their  Lord's-Day.  But  when  the 
Quakers  raised  t/iezr  protest,  the  case  was  altogether 
different.  The  false  gods  whose  names  were  bound 
up  in  these  words  had  ceased  to  be  worshipped  in 
England  for  about  a  thousand  years  ;  the  words  had 
wholly  disengaged  themselves  from  their  etymologies, 
which  probably  not  one  in  a  thousand  was  so  much 
as  aware  of.  Moreover,  had  these  precisians  in 
speech  been  consistent,  they  could  not  have  stopped 
where  they  did.  Every  new  acquaintance  with  the 
etymology  or  primary  use  of  words  would  have  en- 
tangled them  in  some  new  embarrassment,  would 
have  required  them  still  further  to  purge  their  vocab- 
ulary. *To  charm,'  *  to  bewitch,'  'to  fascinate,'  'to 
enchant,'  would  have  been  no  longer  lawful  words  for 
those  who  had  outlived  the  belief  in  magic,  and  in 

*  It  is  curious  to  find  Fuller  prophesying,  a  very  few  years  before, 
that  at  some  future  day  such  a  protest  as  theirs  might  actually  be  raised 
{Church  History,  b.  ii,  cent.  6) :  "Thus  we  see  the  whole  week  bescat- 
tered  with  Saxon  idols,  whose  pagan  gods  were  the  godfathers  of  the 
days,  and  gave  them  their  names.  This  some  zealot  may  behold  as  the 
object  of  a  necessary  reformation,  desiring  to  have  the  days  of  the  week 
new  dipt,  and  called  after  other  names.  Though,  indeed,  this  supposed 
scandal  will  not  offend  the  wise,  as  beneath  their  notice ;  and  cannot 
offend  the  ignorant,  as  above  their  knowledge." 


1 98  ON  THE  HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 

the  power  of  the  evil  eye  ;  nor  '  lunacy/  nor  '  luna- 
tic,' for  such  as  did  not  consider  that  the  moon  had 
anything  to  do  with  mental  unsoundness ;  nor  '  pan- 
ic '  fear,  for  those  who  believed  that  the  great  god 
Pan  was  indeed  dead  ;  nor  *  auguries,'  nor  *  auspices,' 
for  those  to  whom  divination  was  nothing  ;  while  to 
speak  of  *  initiating  '  a  person  into  the  *  mysteries  '  of 
an  art,  would  have  been  utterly  heathenish  language. 
Nay,  they  must  have  found  fault  with  the  language  of 
Holy  Scripture  itself ;  for  a  word  of  honorable  use  in 
the  New  Testament  expressing  the  function  of  an  in- 
terpreter, and  reappearing  in  our  *  hermeneutics,' 
is  directly  derived  from  and  embodies  the  name  of 
Hermes,  a  heathen  deity,  and  one  who  did  not,  like 
Woden,  Thor,  and  Freya,  pertain  to  a  long  extinct 
mythology,  but  to  one  existing  at  the  very  time 
when  he  wrote  in  its  strength.  And  how  was  it,  as 
might  have  been  fairly  asked,  that  S.  Paul  did  not 
protest  against  a  Christian  woman  retaining  the  name 
of  Phoebe  (Rom.  xvi.  i.  ),  a  goddess  of  the  same 
mythology  ? 

The  rise  and  fall  of  words,  the  honor  which  in 
tract  of  time  they  exchanged  for  dishonor,  and  the 
dishonor  for  honor — all  which  in  my  last  lecture  I 
contemplated  mainly  from  an  ethical  point  of  view — 
is  in  a  merely  historic  aspect  scarcely  less  remarkable. 
Very  curious  is  it  to  watch  the  varying  fortune  of 
words — the  extent  to  which  it  has  fared  with  them, 
as  with  persons  and  families  ;  some  having  improved 
their  position  in  the  world,  and  attained  to  far  greater 
dignity  than  seemed  destined  for  them  at  the  begin- 
ning, while  others  in  a  manner  quite  as  notable  have 


THE  FORTUNES   OF  WORDS.  I99 

lost  caste,  have  descended  from  their  high  estate  to 
common  and  even  ignoble  uses.  Titles  of  dignity 
and  honor  have  naturally  a  peculiar  liability  to  be 
some  lifted  up,  and  some  cast  down.  Of  words 
which  have  risen  in  the  world,  the  French  *  marechal ' 
affords  us  an  excellent  example.  *  Marechal,'  as 
Howell  has  said,  "  at  first  was  the  name  of  a  smith- 
farrier,  or  one  that  dressed  horses  " — which  indeed  it 
is  still — *'  but  it  cHmbed  by  degrees  to  that  height  that 
the  chiefest  commanders  of  the  gendarmery  are  come 
to  be  called  marshals."  But  if  this  has  risen,  our 
*  alderman '  has  fallen.  Whatever  the  civic  dignity 
of  an  alderman  may  now  be,  still  it  must  be  owned 
that  the  word  has  lost  much  since  the  time  that  the 
alderman  was  only  second  in  rank  and  position  to  the 
king.  Sometimes  a  word  will  keep  or  even  improve 
its  place  in  one  language,  while  at  the  same  time  it 
declines  from  it  in  another.  Thus  '  demoiselle ' 
(domincella)  cannot  be  said  to  have  lost  ground  in 
French,  however  *  donzelle' may ;  while  *  damhele,* 
being  the  same  word,  designates  in  Walloon  the 
farm-girl  who  minds  the  cows.  '  Pope  '  is  the  highest 
ecclesiastical  dignity  in  the  Latin  Church  ;  every  par- 
ish priest  is  a  *  pope  *  in  the  Greek.  *  Queen  \=  yvvij) 
has  had  a  double  fortune.  In  this  way  spelt  it  has 
more  than  kept  the  dignity  with  which  it  started,  be- 
ing the  title  given  to  the  lady  of  the  kingdom  ;  while 
spelt  as  *  quean '  it  is  a  designation  not  untinged  with 
contempt.  *  Squatter '  remains  for  us  in  England  very 
much  where  it  was ;  in  Australia  it  is  now  the  name  by 
which  the  landed  aristocracy  are  willing  to  be  known.* 

*  Dilke,  Greater  Britain^  vol.  ii.  p.  40. 


200  ON  THE  HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 

After  all  which  has  thus  been  adduced,  you  will 
scarcely  deny  that  we  have  a  right  to  speak  of  a  his- 
tory in  words.  Now  suppose  that  the  pieces  of  mon- 
ey which  in  the  intercourse  and  traffic  of  daily  life  are 
passing  through  our  hands,  had  each  one  something 
of  its  own  which  made  it  more  or  less  worthy  of  note  ; 
if  on  one  was  stamped  some  striking  maxim,  on  an-' 
other  some  important  fact,  on  the  third  a  memorable 
date  ;  if  others  were  works  of  finest  art,  graven  with 
rare  and  beautiful  devices,  or  bearing  the  head  of 
some  ancient  sage  or  heroic  king  ;  while  others,  again, 
were  the  sole  surviving  monuments  of  mighty  nations 
that  once  filled  the  world  with  their  fame  ;  what  a 
careless  indifference  to  our  own  improvement — to  all 
which  men  hitherto  had  felt  or  wrought — would  it 
argue  in  us,  if  we  were  content  that  these  should 
come  and  go,  should  stay  by  us  or  pass  from  us, 
without  our  vouchsafing  to  them  so  much  as  one  se- 
rious regard.  Such  a  currency  there  is,  a  currency 
intellectual  and  spiritual  of  no  meaner  worth,  and  one 
with  which  we  have  to  transact  so  much  of  the  higher 
business  of  our  lives.  Let  us  see  that  we  come  not 
in  this  matter  under  the  condemnation  of  any  such 
incurious  dullness  as  that  which  I  have  imagined. 


BLACKBOARD    EXERCISES. 

LECTURE   IV. 
ON  THE   HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 


EXERCISE  No.  I. 
INTRODUCTION. 

I.  Language  a  vehicle  of  knowledge. 

1.  A  link  between  the  past  and  present. 

2.  A  reliable  record. 

II.  Language  a  proof  of  the  unity  of  mankind. 

III.  Language  a  record  of  history. 

IV.  History  can  be  recreated  from  language. 

Example — the  Norman  Conquest. 

EXERCISE  No.  IL 
TEACHINGS  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE. 
I.  Saxon  and  norman  relations. 

1.  They  existed  side  by  side. 

2.  They  were  fused  into  a  third. 

3.  Those  words  survived  in  each  : 

{a)  Which  were  most  used. 

{b.)  Which  laid  the  strongest  hold  on  life. 

(<:.)  Which  had  no  duplicates. 
II.  Saxon  and  norman  contributions. 
A.  Norman. 

1 .  Words  of  dignity  and  royalty. 

2.  "       "  luxury  and  the  chase. 

3.  "       "  chivalry  and  adornment. 

4.  Names  of  meats  prepared  for  the  table. 
9* 


202 


ON  THE  HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 


B.  Saxon. 

1.  Great  features  of  nature. 

2.  Social  relations. 

3.  The  language  of  labor. 

4.  Products  of  the  soil. 

5.  Names  of //?//«^  animals. 

III.  Deductions  from  the  composition  of  the  Eng- 
lish TONGUE. 

1.  That  the  Saxon  was  the  inferior  race. 

2.  That  it  furnished  the  groundwork  of  our  language. 


EXERCISE   No.   III. 

HISTORICAL  RECREATIONS. 

I.  Arabic  words. 

I 

"  Cypher." 

2 

"  Algebra." 

3 

.  "  Zero." 

4 

•'  Almanack." 

5 

"  Zenith." 

6 

"  Nadir." 

7 

.  "Azimuth." 

8 

"  Alkali." 

9 

"  Alcohol." 

10 

.  "Alchemy." 

II 

"  Alembic." 

12 

.  "  Elixir." 

13 

"  Magazine." 

14 

.  "  Tariff." 

II.  Origi 

CHX 

NS  OF    THE    MONASTIC    SYSTEM 
JRCH. 

IN  THE    GREEK 

I 

"Monk." 

2 

"  Monastery." 

3 

.  "Cenobite." 

4 

"  Anchorite." 

5 

.  "Ascetic." 

6 

.  "Hermit." 

7.  "  Archimandrite." 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  203 

III.  The  ASIATICS  before  migration  began. 

1.  They  were  pastoral,  but  not  agricultural. 

2.  They  had  not  the  knowledge  of  working  metals. 

3.  The  common  stock  was  not  small. 

(a.)  Intellectual. 
{b.)  Moral. 

IV.  Harvests  of  historic  lore  garnered  in  single 

WORDS. 
Examples — 

A.  *'  Church:' 

1.  Originally  Greek. 

2.  Passed  from  the   Greek  to  the  Goths  on  the 

Danube. 

3.  Thence  to  the  German  tribes. 

4.  And  last  to  our  Anglo-Saxon  forefathers. 

B.  ^^  Pagan:'    ^^  Paganism:' 

1.  "  Pagan"  dwellers  in  villages. 

2.  **        civilians,  not  soldiers. 

3.  "        last  to  be  Christianized. 

4.  "        applied  to  all  heathens. 

5.  "  Heathen"  has  a  similar  history. 
Conclusions — 

1.  The  church  first  planted  in  cities. 

2.  Its  first  complete  triumphs  there. 

EXERCISE  No.  IV. 
HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 

I.  **  Sacrament." 

1.  In  Roman  law,  a  deposit  or  pledge. 

2.  A  Roman  military  oath. 

3.  Any  solemn  oath  whatsoever. 

4.  In  the  early  Church  any  sacred  rite. 

5.  Limited  use  in  later  times. 

{a.)  To  the  seven  sacraments  of  the  Church  of 

Rome. 
(^.)  To  the  two  sacraments  of  the  Protestant 

Church, 


204  ON  THE   HISTORY  IN   WORDS. 

1.  Baptism,  an  oath. 

2.  The  holy  eucharist,  a  mystery. 
-  II.  "Frank." 

1 .  France  the  crusading  nation. 

2.  Hence,  the  name  given  to  all  the  warriors. 

III.  "  Miscreant." 

1.  Grew  out  of  the  crusades. 

2.  Meant  at  first  simply  "  misbeliever." 

3.  A  term  of  reproach. 

IV.  "  Samaritan  "  and  "  assassin." 

EXERCISE  No.  V. 
CONTRIBUTIONS     OF     THE     CHURCH     AND     THE 
SCHOOLMEN. 
I.  The  church. 
A.  "Cardinal." 

1.  An  assumption  of  the  Roman  See. 

2.  The  See  the  hinge  of  the  Church. 

3.  The  clergy  "  cardinales." 
B.  "  Legend." 

1.  Original  meaning. 

2.  Later  corruption. 

3.  Final  use. 

n.   THE  SCHOOLMEN  :    "  DUNCE." 

1.  Who  were  termed  "  schoolmen." 

2.  Why  their  works  fell  out  of  favor. 

3.  Who  held  to  the  old  learning. 

4.  They  were  called  "  Dunsmen." 

5.  Hence,  "  duns,"  "  dunsery,"  "  dunce." 

6.  The  new  learning  made  these  titles. 

EXERCISE  No.  VI. 
INJUSTICE  AND  ERRORS  IN  WORDS. 

I.  Injustice  in  *'  mammetry." 
II.  The  importance  of  giving  right  names. 

1 .  Influence  of  words  on  the  world's  history. 

2.  "        *'      "       "  opinions. 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  20$ 

III.  Errors  suggested  by  words. 

A.  "  Crystal." 

1 .  Error  occasioned  by  the  najne. 

2.  Confirmed  by  Pliny. 

3.  Dissipated  by  Sir  Thomas  Browne. 

4.  Explanation  of  the  error. 

B.  "Semitic"  and  "  indo-european." 

C.  "  Leopard." 

1 .  Erroneously  so  called  from  the  first. 

2.  Error  propagated  by  the  name. 

D.  "Gothic." 

1 .  Name  coined  after  the  Goths  had  died  out, 

2.  At  first  a  name  of  contempt. 

3.  Scornfully  applied  to  architecture. 

E.  Miscellaneous. 

1.  "  Classical." 

2.  "Romantic." 

3.  "  Revival  of  learning." 

4.  "Renaissance." 

5.  "  Unitarian." 

6.  "Catholic." 

7.  "Reformation." 

EXERCISE  No.  VII. 
NAMES  OF  SECTS  AND  PARTIES. 

I.  The  rise  of  new  names  from   external  acci- 
dent. 

A.  Selected. 

1.  "  Gnostics." 

2.  "  Cavaliers." 

B.  Imposed  and  not  accepted, 

1.  "  Quaker." 

2.  "  Puritan." 

3.  "Roundhead." 

C.  Imposed  and  accepted. 

1.  "  Whig  and  Tory." 

2.  "  Lutheran." 


206  ON  THE  HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 

3.  "Methodist." 

4.  "  Momiers." 

5.  ''Capuchin." 

6.  *'  Gueux." 

7.  "Premier." 
II.  Instructive  names. 

1.  "  Gnostic  "  and  "  gnosticism." 

2.  "  Orthodox"  and  "  catholic."^ 

3.  "  Puritans." 

4.  "  Fifth-monarchy  men." 

5.  "Seekers." 

6.  "  Levellers. 

7.  "  Independents." 

8.  "Friends." 

9.  "  Rationalists." 

10.  "  Latitudinarians." 

11.  "Freethinkers." 


EXERCISE  No.  VIII. 
RECORDS  IN  NAMES. 

I.  History  of  commerce  in  names. 

1.  "  Magnet." 

2.  "  Baldachin." 

3.  "  Bayonet." 

4.  "Cambric." 

5.  "  Crape,"  etc. 

II.  Fashions  in  names. 

1.  "Cravat." 

2.  "  Biggen." 

3.  "  Dalmatic,"  etc. 

III.  Record  oe  traffic  in  names. 

1.  "Calico." 

2.  "Muslin." 

3.  "  Parchment." 


5.  "  Ermine,"  etc. 


BLACKBOARD  EXERCISES.  20/ 

IV.  Origins  IN  names. 

1.  "  Spaniel." 

2.  "  Sherry." 

3.  "  Pheasant." 

4.  "  Currants." 

5.  "Solecisms." 

EXERCISE  No.  IX. 
WORDS  MADE  FROM  PROPER  NAMES. 

I.  Mythical  and  classical  antiquity. 

1.  "  Chimerical." 

2.  "Tantalize." 

3.  "  Herculean." 

4.  "  Mausoleum." 

5.  "  Academy." 

6.  "Philippic." 

7.  "  Cicerone,"  etc. 

II.  Medieval  times. 

1.  "Badeker." 

2.  "  Vernicle." 

3.  "  Pantaloons." 

4.  "  Dunce,"  etc. 

III.  Modern  times. 

1.  "  Chaucerisms. 

2.  "  Pasquinade." 

3.  "  Orrery." 

4.  "  Tram-road." 

5.  "  Galvanism." 

6.  "  Nicotine." 

7.  "  Macadamize,"  etc. 

IV.  Popular  characters  in  books. 

A.  Ancient. 

1.  "  Stentorian." 

2.  "  Hector,"  etc. 

B.  Medieval  and  modern. 

1.  "Pander." 

2.  "  Quixotic. 


208  ON  THE   HISTORY   IN   WORDS. 


3.  "  Liliputian." 

4.  *'  Reynard,"  etc. 

EXERCISE  No.  X. 

BLUNDERS  IN  WORDS. 

I. 

Names  embodying  an  error. 

I.  "America." 

2.  "Turkeys." 

3.  "  Poulet  d'Inde." 

4.  "  Gipsy." 

5.  "Bohemians." 

II. 

Errors  suggested  by  the  sound  or  spelling. 

I.  "  Domus,"  and  "  Dominus." 

2.  "Jutland." 

3.  "Aborigines." 

4.  "Lyons." 

5.  "Druid." 

6.  "Jove." 

7.  "  lapetus  "  and  "  Japheth." 

8.  "  God,"  and  "  good." 

III. 

Reaction  of  assumed  derivation  on  spelling. 

I.  "Picts." 

2.  "  Hurricane." 

3.  "Calamitas." 

EXERCISE  No.  XI. 

THE 

LEGACIES  OF  WORDS. 

I. 

Old  customs  in  words. 

I.  "Stipulation." 

2.  "Curfew." 

3.  "  Limner." 

4.  "  Thraldom." 

5.  "  Lumber." 

6.  "  Signing  our  name  "  and  "  subscribe." 

7.  "Calculation." 

8.  "  Expend  "  and  "  estimate." 

9.  "  Pecunia,"  "  peculatus,"  "  fee,"  and  "  rupee." 

10.  "  Library,"  "  volume,"  "  book,"  and  "  paper." 

BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  209 

II.  Arguments  founded  on  etymologies  :  "  ^pros." 

III.  Exploded  theories  in  words. 

1.  "  Humor"  :  good,  bad,  and  dry. 

2.  '^  Temper." 

3.  "  Distemper." 

IV.  Old  faiths  in  words. 
A.  Mythology, 


I.  ''Lubber." 

2.  "Dwarf." 

3.  "Oaf." 

4.  "Droll." 

5.  "Wight." 

6.  "  Urchin." 

7.  "  Hag." 

8.  "  Night-mare." 

9.  "Changeling." 

10.  "  Wicked." 

B. 

Astrology. 

I.  "Jovial." 

2.  "  Saturnine." 

3.  "  Mercurial." 

4.  "Disastrous." 

5.  "Ill-starred." 

6.  "Ascendency." 

C. 

Speculations:  "Quintessence." 

V. 

Old  legends. 

I.  "Sardonic." 

2.  "Amethyst." 

EXERCISE  No.  XII. 

THE 

PREROGATIVES  OF  WORDS. 

I. 

Independent  existence  of  words. 

I.  "  Journals." 

2.  "  Quarantine." 

3.  "Decimated." 

4.  "  Sarcophagus." 

5.  "  Candles." 

210  ON  THE  HISTORY  IN  WORDS. 


6.  "  Rubrics." 

7.  "  Miniatures." 

8,  "Surplice." 

9.  "Haversack." 

10.  "Palaces." 

ti.  "Nausea." 

12.  "  White  black-hird:' 

13.  "  New  Forest." 

14.  "Neapolis." 

II. 

Quaker  scruples  about  words. 

I .  Refusal  to  use  heathen  names. 

2.  Substitution  of  numerals  for  the  days  of  the 

week. 

A. 

Needless. 

I .  Because  false  worship  had  ceased. 

2.  The  names  were  disengaged  from  their  etymol- 

ogies. 

B. 

Inconsistent. 

I.  Because  they  use  other  words  of  similar  origin. 

{a.)  "Charm." 

{b.)  "Bewitch." 

{c.)  "Fascinate." 

(^.)  "  Enchant." 

{e.)  "Lunatic." 

if.)  "  Panic." 

{g.)  "  Auguries,"  etc. 

2.  Because  such  words  are  used  in.  the  Bible. 

(a.)  "  Interpreter." 

{b.)  "Phoebe." 

in. 

Varying  fortunes  of  words. 

I.  "Marshals." 

2.  "Alderman." 

3.  "Demoiselle." 

4.  "  Pope." 

5.  "  Queen." 

6.  "  Squatter." 

IV.  Intellectual  and  spiritual  currency  of  words. 


QUESTIONS. 

LECTURE   IV. 
On  the  History  in  Words. 


What  is  said  of  language  as  a  vehicle  of  knowledge  ? 

How  does  it  connect  the  past  and  present  ? 

How  is  it  superior  to  monuments,  etc.  ? 

What  view  is  held  in  reference  to  the  settlement  of  the  earth  ? 

What  great  moral  argument  is  anticipated  from  language  ? 

What  progress  has  been  made  in  this  direction  already  ? 

How  are  philology  and  geology  compared  ? 

What  example  is  given  ? 

How  is  history  reconstructed  ? 

How  did  the  Saxon  and  Norman  languages  stand  related  at 
first? 

How  were  they  united  ? 

What  words  survived  in  each  ? 

How  were  the  claims  of  the  contending  words  settled  ? 

What  words  lead  us  to  conclude  that  the  Norman  was  the 
ruling  race  ? 

What  remarkable  exception  was  there  ? 

What  does  it  prove  ? 

Which  words  were  of  Saxon  birth  ? 

Give  five  classes  of  examples. 

What  is  the  inference  from  this  comparison  of  words  ? 

Mention  some  words  of  Arabic  origin. 

What  does  language  prove  in  reference  to  the  origin  of  the 
monastic  system  ? 


212  ON  THE   HISTORY   IN   WORDS. 

How  do  words  stand  related  to  the  remote  past  ? 

What  is  said  about  the  Indo-European  race  ? 

How  do  we  reach  it  ? 

On  what  class  of  words  are  our  conclusions  to  be  based. 

How  do  you  prove  that  the  Asiatic  races  had  entered  on  the 
pastoral  stage  ? 

What  is  proved  by  the  absence  of  the  names  of  metals  ? 

What  is  the  testimony  of  words  in  reference  to  the  common 
stock  ? 

What  is  said  of  single  words  ? 

Give  the  history  of  church,"  "  pagan,"  and  "paganism," 
"  heathen." 

What  instructive  notices  do  we  glean  from  these  latter 
words  ? 

Give  miscellaneous  examples  of  history  in  single  words. 

Give  an  account  of  "  sacrament,"  "  Frank,"  "  miscreant," 
**  Samaritan,"  "  assassin." 

What  explanation  is  given  of  "  cardinal  "  ? 

What  is  the  history  of  "  legend  "  ? 

What  words  were  bequeathed  by  the  schoolmen  ? 

Give  the  history  and  fortunes  of  "  dunce." 

What  injustice  is  wrapped  up  in  *'  Mahometry  ?  " 

What  is  said  about  the  importance  of  names  ? 

What  of  the  influence  of  words  on  opinions  ? 

What  is  illustrated  by  "  crystal  "  ? 

What  legend  is  bound  up  in  "  leopard"  ?  "  cockatrice  "  ? 

What  is  said  of  Eichhorn's  '*  Semitic  "  ?  ''  Indo-European  "  ? 

How  is  "  Gothic"  a  misnomer  ? 

What  is  said  of  *'  classical,"  "  romantic,"  "  revival  of  learn- 
ing," "  renaissance  "  ? 

What  is  true  of  words  for  the  chief  objects  and  facts  of  our 
faith  ? 

Illustrate  this  by  the  use  of  "  Unitarians,"  **  Catholics," 
"  Reformation." 

What  is  urged  in  reference  to  the  history  of  important  bodies 
of  men  ? 

How  should  we  investigate  ? 

What  is  to  be  learned  in  reference  to  their  names  ? 


QUESTIONS.  213 

Give  examples  of  names  selected  ;  of  names  devised  by 
others,  and  not  accepted  ;  of  names  applied  by  others,  and 
subsequently  received. 

What  is  said  of  "  premier  "  ? 

Give  examples  of  names  which  furnish  a  key  to  great  sys- 
tems. 

What  do  we  learn  from  "  orthodox  "  and  "  cathohc  "  ? 

Give  other  significant  titles  of  parties. 

Mention  some  names  which  contain  a  record  of  inventions 
and  commerce  ;  of  fashions  ;  of  traffic  ;  of  the  origins  of  pro- 
ducts. 

What  have  authors,  inventors,  and  discoverers  bequeathed 
us? 

Enumerate  some  names  from  mythical  antiquity  ;  medieval 
times  ;  modern  times. 

Give  examples  of  names  drawn  from  books  ;  of  names  em- 
bodying and  giving  permanence  to  error  ;  of  sound  or  spelling 
suggesting  error  ;  of  falsely  assumed  derivation  reacting  on 
spelHng. 

What  evidence  have  we  of  the  conservative  powers  of  lan- 
guage ? 

What  custom  is  suggested  by  "stipulation"?  *' curfew"? 
"  limner  "  ?  "  thrall  "  ?  "  lumber  "  ?  '*  signing  our  name  "  ? 
"calculation"?  ''expend"?  "library"?  "paper"? 

Give  an  example  of  an  etymology  used  for  an  argument. 

Mention  words  containing  traces  of  old  and  renounced  the- 
ories ;  deposits  of  old  errors ;  mythologies  ;  speculations ; 
and  legends. 

What  question  is  raised  in  reference  to  the  original  use  of 
words  ? 

Give  examples  of  proper  secondary  meanings. 

What  is  said  in  reference  to  needless  scruples  about  words  ? 

What  inconsistency  would  it  lead  to  ? 

What  argument  is  drawn  from  Scripture  use  of  names  ? 

What  is  said  about  the  rise  and  fall  of  words  ? 

What  is  true  of  titles  of  dignity  ?     Give  examples. 

What  is  the  conclusion  of  the  lecture  ? 


ADDITIONAL  WORDS  FOR  ILLUSTRATION. 

LECTURE  IV. 

On  the  History  in  Words. 


1.  Bumper. 

2.  Buncombe. 

3.  England. 

4.  Emolument. 

5.  Eureka. 

6.  February. 

7.  Garble. 

8.  Gazette. 

9.  Indian. 

10.  Inoculation. 

11.  Know-nothing. 

12.  Laconic. 

13.  Letter. 

14.  Livery. 

15.  Loco-foco. 

16.  Lynch. 

17.  Lymphatic. 

18.  Manumit. 

19.  Merino. 

20.  Mesmerism. 


21.  Money. 

22.  Mormon. 

23.  Mortgage. 

24.  Municipal. 

25.  Ordeal. 

26.  Palladium. 

27.  Procrustean. 

28.  Recreant. 

29.  Rubicon. 

30.  Runic. 

31.  Salary. 

32.  Saunter. 

33.  Saxon. 

34.  Septuagint. 

35.  Stoic. 

36.  Tartar. 

37.  University. 

38.  Vaccination. 

39.  Worship. 

40.  Yankee. 


LECTURE  V. 

ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW  WORDS. 

YOU  will  find  it  not  less  interesting  than  instruc- 
tive to  take  note  of  the  times  when  great  and 
significant  words,  when  some  too  which  can  hardly 
claim  to  be  so  considered,  have  made  their  first 
appearance  in  the  world,  with  the  circumstances  at- 
tending their  birth  ;  and  scarcely  less  interesting  to 
note  the  new  uses  to  which  old  words  are  put.  A 
volume  might  be  written,  such  as  few  would  rival  in 
interest,  which  should  do  no  more  than  indicate  the 
first  occasion  upon  %vhich  new  words,  or  old  words 
employed  in  a  new  sense — being  such  as  the  world 
subsequently  heard  much  of — had  appeared;  with 
quotation,  where  advisable,  of  the  passages  in  proof. 
A  young  English  poet,  too  early  lost,  has  very 
grandly  described  the  emotion  of 

*'  some  watcher  of  the  skies, 
When  a  new  planet  swims  into  his  ken." 

Not  very  different  from  his  will  be  our  feeling,  as  we 
watch,  at  the  moment  of  its  rising  above  the  horizon, 
some  word  destined,  it  may  be,  to  take  a  place  for 
ever  among  the  luminaries  in  the  moral  and  intellec- 
tual firmament  above  us. 

But  a  caution  is  necessary  here.     We  must  not 


2l6  ON   THE   RISE   OF   NEW   WORDS. 

take  for  certain  in  every  case,  or  indeed  in  most 
cases,  that  the  first  rise  of  a  word  will  have  been 
identical  in  time  with  its  first  appearance  within  the 
range  of  our  vision.  Such  identity  will  sometimes 
exist ;  and  we  may  watch  the  actual  birth  of  some  word 
and  affirm  with  confidence  that  at  such  a  time  and  on 
such  an  occasion  it  first  saw  the  light — in  this  book, 
or  from  the  lips  of  that  man.  Of  another  we  can 
only  say,  About  this  time  and  near  about  this  spot  it 
first  came  into  being,  for  we  first  meet  it  in  such  an 
author  and  under  such  and  such  conditions.  So 
mere  a  fragment  of  ancient  literature  has  come  down 
to  us,  that,  while  the  earliest  appearance  there  of  a 
word  is  still  more  instructive  to  note,  it  cannot  in  all 
or  in  nearly  all  cases  be  affirmed  to  mark  the  exact 
moment  of  its  nativity.  And  even  in  the  modern 
world  we  must  in  most  instances  be  content  to  fix  a 
period,  we  may  perhaps  add  a  local  habitation,  with- 
in the  limits  of  which  the  term  must  have  been  born, 
either  in  legitimate  scientific  travail,  or  the  child  of 
some  flash  of  genius,  or  the  produce  of  some  gcncra- 
tio  cequivoca^  the  necessary  result  of  exciting  predis- 
posing causes ;  at  the  same  time  seeking  by  further 
research  ever  to  narrow  more  and  more  the  limits 
within  which  this  must  have  happened. 

To  speak  first  of  words  religious  and  ecclesiastical. 
Very  noteworthy,  and  in  some  sort  epoch-making, 
must  be  regarded  the  first  appearance  of  the  follow 
ing : — '  Christian  ' ;  ^  *  Trinity  '  \^   '  Catholic,'   as  ap- 
plied to  the  Church;^    'canonical,'  as  a  distinctive 

^  Acts  xi.  26.      '  Tertullian,  Adv.  Prax.  3.      '  Ignatius,  Ad.  Smyr.  8. 


FIRST   APPEARANCE   OF   WORDS.  21/ 

title  of  the  received  Scriptures  ;  ^  '  New  Testament,' 
as  describing  the  complex  of  the  sacred  books  of  the 
New  Covenant;^  *  Gospels,'  as  applied  to  the  four 
inspired  records  of  the  ministry  of  our  Lord.^  We 
notice,   too,   with  interest,  the  first   coming    up    of 

*  monk  '  and  *  nun,'  *  marking  as  they  do  the  begin- 
nings of  the  monastic  system  ;  —  of  *  transubstantia- 
tion,'  ^  of  *  Hmbo  '  ^  in  its  theological  sense  ;  witnessing 
as  these  do  to  the  consolidation  of  errors  which  had 
long  been  floating  in  the  Church. 

Not  of  so  profound  an  interest,  but  still  very  in- 
structive to  note,  is  the  earliest  apparition  of  names 
historical  and  geographical,  above  all  of  such  as  have 
since  been  often  on  the  lips  of  men  ;  as  the  first 
mention   in   books    of  'Asia';"^     of   *  India' ;^    of 

*  Europe  '  ;  ^  of  '  Macedonia' ;  ^'^  of  *  Greeks  '  ;  ^^  of 

1  Origen,  0pp.  vol.  iii.  p.  36  (ed.  De  la  Rue). 

^  TertuUian,  Adv.  MarCy  iv.  l;  Adv.  Prax.  xv.  20. 

2  Justin  Martyr,  Apol.  i.  dd. 

■*  *  Nun '  (nonna)  first  appears  in  Jerome  {Ad  Eustoch.  Ep.  22) ; 

*  monk '  (monachus)  a  little  earlier ;  Rutilius,  a  Latin  versifier  of  the 
fifth  century,  who  still  clung  to  the  old  Paganism,  gives  the  derivation : 

Ipsi  se  monachos  Graio  cognomine  dicunt. 
Quod  soli  nullo  vivere  teste  volunt. 

*  Hildebert,  Bishop  of  Tours  (f  1134),  is  the  first  to  use  it  {Serm, 

93). 

^  Thomas  Aquinas  first  uses  *  limbus  *  in  this  sense. 

'  yEschylus,  Prometheus  Vintus.^  412. 

8  Id.  Suppl.  282. 

^  Herodotus,  iv.  36.  '°  Id.  v.  17. 

"  Aristotle,  Meteor^  i.  14.     But  his  TpaiKoi  are  only  an  insignificant 
tribe,  near  Dodona.     How  it  came  to  pass  that  Grseci,  or  Graii,  was 
the  Latin  name  by  which  all  the  Hellenes  were  known,  must  always 
remain  a  mystery. 
10 


2l8  ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW  WORDS. 

*  Germans  '  and  '  Germany  ' ;  ^  of  '  Alemanni '  :  ^  of 

*  Franks  '  ;^  of  *  Prussia '  and  *  Prussians  ' ;  *  of  *  Nor- 
mans '  ;  ®  the  earliest  notice  by  any  Greek  author  of 
**  Rome  "  ^  the  first  use  of  *  Italy  '  as  comprehending 
the  entire  Hesperian  peninsula,^  of  '  Asia  Minor '  to 
designate  Asia  on  this  side  Taurus.^  Neither  can 
we  regard  with  indifference  the  first  giving  to  the 
newly-discovered  continent  in  the  West  the  name  of 

*  America  *  ;  and  still  less  should  we  Englishmen  fail 
to  take  note  of  the  date  when  this  island  exchanged 
its  earlier  name  of  Britain  for  *  England  '  or,  again, 
when  it  resumed  *  Great  Britain '  as  its  ofBcial  desig- 
nation. So  also,  to  confirm  our  assertion  by  exam- 
ples from  another  quarter,  it  cannot  be  unprofitable 
to  mark  the  exact  moment   at  which    *  tyrant '   and 

*  tyranny,'  forming  so  distinct  an  epoch  as  this  did  in 
the  political  history  of  Greece,  first  appeared  ;  *   or 


*  Probably  first  in  the  Commentaries  of  Caesar ;  see  Grimm,  Gesch. 
d.  Deutschen  Sprache^  p.  773. 

2  Spartian,  Caracallay  c.  9. 

2  Vopiscus,  Attrel.  7 ;  about  A.  D.  240. 

*  *  Pruzia  '  and  *  Pruzzi '  first  appear  in  the  Life  of  S.  Adalbert^  writ- 
ten by  his  fellow-laborer  Gaudentius,  between  997-1006. 

'  The  Geographer  of  Ravenna. 

*  Probably  in  Hellanicus,  a  contemporary  of  Herodotus. 

■>  In  the  time  of  Augustus  Caesar;  see  Niebuhr,  History  of  Rome^ 
Engl.  Translation,  vol.  i.  p.  12. 

^  Orosius,  I.  2.  :  in  the  fifth  century  of  our  era. 

*  In  the  writings  of  Archilochus,  about  700  B.  c.  A  *  tyrant  *  was 
not  for  Greeks  a  bad  king,  who  abused  a  rightful  position  to  purposes 
of  lust  or  cruelty  or  other  wrong.  It  was  of  the  essence  of  a  tyrant 
that  he  had  attained  supreme  dominion  through  a  violation  of  the  laws 
and  liberties  of  the  state ;  having  done  which,  whatever  the  moderation 
of  his  after-rule,  he  would  not  escape  the  name.     Thus  the  mild  and 


CHRISTIANS  AT  ANTIOCH.  219 

again  when,  and  from  whom,  the  fabric  of  the  exter- 
nal universe  first  received  the  title  of  '  cosmos,'  or 
beautiful  order  ;  *  a  name  not  new  in  itself,  but  new 
in  this  application  of  it ;  with  much  more  of  the  same 
kind. 

Let  us  go  back  to  one  of  the  words  just  named, 
and  enquire  what  may  be  learned  from  acquaintance 
with  the  time  and  place  of  its  first  appearance.  It  is 
one  the  coming  up  of  which  has  found  special  record 
in  the  Book  of  life:  "The  disciples,"  as  S.  Luke 
expressly  tells  us,  **  were  called  Christians  first  in 
Antioch  "  (Acts  xi.  26).  That  we  have  here  a  notice 
which  we  should  not  willingly  have  missed  all  would 
acknowledge,  even  as  nothing  can  be  otherwise  than 
curious  which  relates  to  the  infancy  of  the  Church. 
But  this  perhaps  is  all  which  some  would  perceive  in 
it ;  and  yet,  if  we  question  this  notice  a  little  closer, 
how  much  it  will  be  found  to  contain,  how  much  it  is 
waiting  to  yield  up  to  us.  What  light  it  throws  on 
the   whole    story   of  the    apostolic  Church  to  know 


bounteous  Pisistratus  was  tyrant '  of  Athens,  while  a  Christian  the 
Second  of  Denmark,  "  the  Nero  of  the  North,"  would  not  in  Greek 
eyes  have  been  one.  It  was  to  their  honor  that  they  did  not  allow  the 
course  of  the  word  to  be  arrested  or  turned  aside  by  occasional  or  par- 
tial exceptions  in  the  manner  of  the  exercise  of  this  ill-gotten  domin- 
ion ;  but  in-  the  hateful  secondary  sense  which  '  tyrant '  with  them  ac- 
quired, and  which  we  have  adopted,  the  moral  conviction,  justified  by 
all  experience,  spake  out,  that  the  ill-gotten  would  be  ill-kept ;  that 
the  *  tyrant '  in  the  earlier  sense  of  the  word,  dogged  by  suspicion,  fear, 
and  an  evil  conscience,  must,  by  an  almost  inevitable  law,  become  a 
*  tyrant '  in  our  later  sense  of  the  word. 

*  Pythagoras,  born  B.C.  570,  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  who 
made  this  application  of  the  word.  For  much  of  interest  on  its  history 
see  Humboldt,  Kostnos^  1846.    English  edit.,  vol.  i.  p.  371. 


220  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

where  and  when  this  name  of  *  Christians '  was  first 
imposed  on  the  faithful ;  for  imposed  by  adversaries 
it  certainly  was,  not  devised  by  themselves,  however 
afterwards  they  may  have  learned  to  glory  in  it  as 
the  name  of  highest  dignity  and  honor.  They  did 
not  call  themselves,  but,  as  is  expressly  recorded, 
they  "  were  called,"  Christians  first  at  Antioch  ;  in 
agreement  with  which  statement,  the  name  occurs 
nowhere  in  Scripture,  except  on  the  lips  of  those 
alien  from,  or  opposed  to,  the  faith  (Acts  xxvi.  28  ; 
I  Pet.  iv.  16).  And  as  it  was  a  name  imposed  by 
adversaries,  so  among  those  adversaries  it  was  plainly 
the  heathen,  and  not  the  Jews,  who  were  its  authors  ; 
for  Jews  would  never  have  called  the  followers  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  *  Christians,'  or  those  of  Christ, 
the  very  point  of  their  opposition  to  Him  being,  that 
He  was  7iot  the  Christ,  but  a  false  pretender  to  the 
name.* 

Starting  then  from  this  point,  that  '  Christians  '  was 
a  title  given  to  the  disciples  by  the  heathen,  what 
may  we  deduce  from  it  further  ?  At  Antioch  they 
first  obtained  this  name — at  the  city,  that  is,  which 
was  the  head-quarters  of  the  Church's  missions  to  the 
heathen,  in  the  same  sense  as  Jerusalem  had  been 
the  head-quarters  of  those  to  the  seed  of  Abraham. 
It  was  there,  and  among  the  faithful  there,  that  a 
conviction  of  the  world-wide  destination  of  the  Gos- 
pel arose  ;  there  it  was  first  plainly  seen  as  intended 

*  Compare  Tacitus  {Annal.  xv.  24)  :  Quos  vulgus  .  .  .  Christianos 
appellabat.  It  is  curious  too  that,  although  a  Greek  word  and  coined 
in  a  Greek  city,  the  termination  is  Latin.  X/uo-xiai/os  is  formed  on  the 
model  of  Romanus,  Albanus,  Pompeianus,  and  the  like. 


CHRISTIANS.  221 

for  all  kindreds  of  the  earth.  Hitherto  the  faithful 
in  Christ  had  been  called  by  their  adversaries,  and 
indeed  often  were  still  called,  '  Galileans,'  or  '  Naza- 
renes,' — both  names  which  indicated  the  Jewish  cradle 
in  which  the  Church  had  been  nursed,  and  that  the 
world  saw  in  the  new  Society  no  more  than  a  Jewish 
sect.  But  it  was  plain  that  the  Church  had  now, 
even  in  the  world's  eyes,  chipped  its  Jewish  shell. 
The  name  *  Christians/  or  those  of  Christ,  while  it 
told  that  Christ  and  the  confession  of  Him  was  felt 
even  by  the  heathen  to  be  the  sum  and  centre  of  this 
new  faith,  showed  also  that  they  comprehended  now, 
not  all  which  the  Church  would  be,  but  something  of 
this  ;  saw  this  much,  namely,  that  it  was  no  mere 
sect  and  variety  of  Judaism,  but  a  Society  with  a  mis- 
sion and  a  destiny  of  its  own.  Nor  will  the  thought- 
ful reader  fail  to  observe  that  the  coming  up  of  this 
name  is  by  closest  juxtaposition  connected  in  the 
sacred  narrative,  and  still  more  closely  in  the  Greek 
than  in  the  English,  with  the  arrival  at  Antioch,  and 
with  the  preaching  there,  of  that  Apostle,  who  was 
God's  appointed  instrument  for  bringing  the  Church 
to  a  full  sense  that  the  message  which  it  had,  was  not 
for  some  men  only,  but  for  all.  As  so  often  happens 
with  the  rise  of  new  names,  the  rise  of  this  one 
marked  a  new  epoch  in  the  Church's  life,  and  that  it 
was  entering  upon  a  new  stage  of  its  development.* 

*  Renan  {Les  .Ap6tres^  pp.  233-236)  has  much  instruction  on  this 
matter.  I  quote  a  few  words  ;  though  even  in  them  the  spirit  in  which 
the  whole  book  is  conceived  does  not  fail  to  make  itself  felt :  L'heure 
ou  une  creation  nouvelle  re9oit  son  nom  est  solennelle  ;  car  le  nom  est 
le  signe  definitif  de  1' existence.     C'est  par  le  nom  qu'un  etre  individuel 


222  ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW  WORDS. 

It  is  a  small  matter,  yet  not  without  its  own  signifi- 
cance, that  the  invention  of  this  name  is  laid  by  S.  Luke, 
— for  so,  I  think,  we  may  confidently  say, — to  the 
credit  of  the  Antiochenes.  Now  the  idle,  frivolous, 
and  witty  inhabitants  of  Antioch  were  noted  in  all 
antiquity  for  the  invention  of  nicknames  ;  it  was  a 
manufacture  for  which  their  city  was  famous.  And 
thus  it  was  exactly  the  place  where  beforehand  we 
might  have  expected  that  such  a  title,  being  a  nick- 
name or  little  better  in  their  mouths  who  devised  it, 
should  first  come  into  being. 

This  one  example  is  sufficient  to  show  that  new 
words  will  often  repay  any  attention  which  we  may 
bestow  upon  them,  and  upon  the  conditions  under 
which  they  were  born.  I  proceed  to  consider  the 
causes  which  suggest  or  necessitate  their  birth,  the 
periods  when  a  language  is  most  fruitful  in  them,  the 
sources  from  which  they  usually  proceed,  with  some 
other  interesting  phenomena  about  them. 

And  first  of  the  causes  which  give  them  birth. 
Now  of  all  these  causes  the  noblest  is  this — namely, 
that  in  the  appointments  of  highest  Wisdom  there  are 
epochs  in  the  world's  history,  in  which,  more  than  at 
other  times,  new   moral  and  spiritual  forces  are   at 


ou  coUectif  devient  lui-meme,  et  sort  d'un  autre.  La  formation  du  mot 
*  Chretien '  marque  ainsi  la  date  precise  ou  I'Ejjlise  de  Jesus  se  separa  du 
judaisme.  .  .  .  Le  christianisme  est  compl^tement  detache  du  sein  de 
sa  mere;  la  vraie  pensee  de  J6sus  a  triomplie  de  I'indecision  de  ses 
premiers  disciples ;  I'figlise  de  Jerusalem  est  depassee ;  TArameen,  la 
langue  de  Jesus,  est  inconnue  k  une  partie  de  son  ecole  ;  le  christian- 
isme parle  Grec  ;  il  est  lance  definitivement  dans  le  grand  tourbillon  du 
monde  grec  et  romain ;  d'ou  il  ne  sortira  plus. 


NEW   WORDS   NECESSARY.  22$ 

work,  stirring  to  their  central  depths  the  hearts  of 
men.  When  it  thus  fares  with  a  people,  they  make 
claims  on  their  language  which  were  never  made  on 
it  before.  It  is  required  to  utter  truths,  to  express 
ideas,  which  were  remote  from  it  hitherto  ;  for  which 
therefore  the  adequate  expression  will  naturally  not 
be  forthcoming  at  once,  these  new  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings being  larger  and  deeper  than  any  with  which 
hitherto  the  speakers  of  that  tongue  had  been  familiar. 
It  fares  with  a  language  then,  as  it  would  fare  with  a 
river  bed,  suddenly  required  to  deliver  a  far  larger 
volume  of  waters  than  had  hitherto  been  its  wont. 
It  would  in  such  a  case  be  nothing  strange,  if  the 
waters  surmounted  their  banks,  broke  forth  on  the 
right  hand  and  on  the  left,  forced  new  channels  with 
a  certain  violence  for  themselves.  This  indeed  they 
must  do.  Now  it  was  exactly  thus  that  it  fared — for 
there  could  be  no  more  illustrious  examples — with 
the  languages  of  Greece  and  Rome,  when  it  was 
demanded  of  them  that  they  should  be  vehicles  of  the 
truths  of  revelation. 

These  languages,  as  they  already  existed,  might 
have  sufficed,  and  did  suffice,  for  heathenism,  sensu- 
ous and  finite  ;  but  they  did  not  suffice  for  the  spirit- 
ual and  infinite,  for  the  truths  at  once  so  new  and -so 
mighty  which  claimed  now  to  find  utterance  in  the 
language  of  men.  And  thus  it  continually  befel,  that 
the  new  thought  must  weave  a  new  garment  for  itself, 
those  which  it  found  ready  made  being  narrower  than 
that  it  could  wrap  itself  in  them  ;  that  the  new  wine 
must  fashion  new  vessels  for  itself,  if  both  should  be 
preserved,  the  old  being  neither  strong  enough,  nor 


224  ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW  WORDS. 

expansive  enough,  to  hold  it.*  Thus,  not  to  speak 
of  mere  technical  matters,  which  would  claim  an 
utterance,  how  could  the  Greek  language  possess  a 
word  for  *  idolatry,*  so  long  as  the  sense  of  the 
awful  contrast  between  the  worship  of  the  living  God 
and  of  dead  things  had  not  risen  up  in  their  minds 
that  spoke  it  ?  But  when  Greek  began  to  be  the 
native  language  of  men,  to  whom  this  distinction  be- 
tween the  Creator  and  the  creature  was  the  most 
earnest  and  deepest  conviction  of  their  lives,  words 
such  as  *  idolatry,*  *  idolater,*  of  necessity  appeared. 
The  heathen  did  not  claim  for  their  deities  to  be 
**  searchers  of  hearts,*'  did  not  disclaim  for  them  the 
being  **  accepters  of  persons";  such  attributes  of 
power  and  righteousness  entered  not  into  their  minds 
as  pertaining  to  the  objects  of  their  worship.  The 
Greek  language,  therefore,  so  long  as  they  only  em- 
ployed it,  had  not  the  words  corresponding,  f  It, 
indeed,  could  not  have  had  them,  as  the  Jewish 
Hellenistic  Greek  could  not  be  without  them.  How 
useful  a  word  is  *  theocracy  ' ;  what  good  service  it 
has  rendered  in  presenting  a  certain  idea  clearly  and 
distinctly  to  the  mind  ;  yet  where,  except  in  the 
bosom  of  the  same  Jewish  Greek,  could  it  have  been 
born  ?  if 

These  difficulties,  which  were  felt  the  most  strongly 

*  Renan,  speaking  on  this  matter,  says  of  the  early  Christians :  La 
langue  leur  faisait  d^faut.  Le  Grec  et  le  Semitique  les  trahissaient 
egalement.  De  1^  cette  ^norme  violence  que  le  Christianismc  naissant 
fit  au  langage  {Les  Apdtres^  p.  71). 

f  npoo-wTToA^TTTTjy,  KapSioyvcixrTrjS' 

JWe  preside  at  its  birth  in  a  passage  of  Josephus,  Con  Apion^ 
il  16. 


SAVIOR.  225 

when  the  thought  and  feeling  that  had  been  at  home 
in  the  Hebrew,  the  original  language  of  inspiration, 
needed  to  be  transferred  into  Greek,  reappeared, 
though  not  in  quite  so  aggravated  a  form,  when  that 
which  had  gradually  woven  for  itself  in  the  Greek  an 
adequate  clothing,  again  demanded  to  find  a  suitable 
garment  in  the  Latin.  An  example  of  the  difficulty, 
and  of  the  way  in  which  the  difficulty  was  ultimately 
overcome,  will  illustrate  this  far  better  than  long  dis- 
quisitions. The  classical  language  of  Greece  had  a 
word  for  ^saviour,'  which,  though  often  degraded  to 
unworthy  uses,  bestowed  as  a  title  of  honor  not 
merely  on  the  false  gods  of  heathendom,  but  some- 
times on  men,  such  as  better  deserved  to  be  styled 
*  destroyers  '  than  *  saviours  '  of  their  fellows,  was 
yet  in  itself  not  unequal  to  the  setting  forth  the  cen- 
tral office  and  dignity  of  Him,  who  came  into  the 
world  to  save  it.  The  word  might  be  likened  to  some 
profaned  temple,  which  needed  a  new  consecration, 
but  not  to  be  abolished,  and  another  built  in  its  room. 
With  the  Latin  it  was  otherwise.  The  language 
seemed  to  lack  a  word,  which  on  one  account  or 
another  Christians  needed  to  have  continually  on  their 
lips  :  indeed  Cicero,  than  whom  none  could  know 
better  the  resources  of  his  own  tongue,  remarkably 
enough  had  noted  its  want  of  any  single  equivalent  to 
the  Greek  '  saviour.'*  *  Salvator  '  would  have  been 
the  natural  word  ;  but  the  literary  Latin  of  the  best 
times,  though  it  had  '  salus  '  and  '  salvus,'  had  neither 
this,    nor  the   verb   *  salvare '  ;    some,    indeed,  have 

*  Hoc    [a-wT'fjp]   quantum   est  ?  ita   magnum   ut  Latine   uno   verbo 
ssit. 
10' 


exprimi  non  possit. 


226  ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW  WORDS. 

thought  that  *  salvare  '  had  always  existed  in  the  com- 
mon speech.  *  Servator '  was  instinctively  felt  to  be 
insufficient,  even  as  *  Preserver  '  would  for  us  fall  very 
short  of  uttering  all  which  *  Saviour  '  does  now.  The 
seeking  of  the  strayed,  the  recovery  of  the  lost,  the 
healing  of  the  sick,  would  all  be  but  feebly  and  faintly 
suggested  by  it,  if  suggested  at  all.  God  '^  preserveth 
man  and  beast,"  but  he  is  the  *  Saviour '  of  his  own  in 
a  more  inward  and  far  higher  sense.  It  was  long  be- 
fore the  Latin  Christian  writers  extricated  themselves 
from  this  embarrassment,  for  the  *  Salutificator  '  of 
Tertullian,  the  *  Sospitator '  of  another,  assuredly  did 
not  satisfy  the  need.  The  strong  good  sense  of 
Augustine  finally  disposed  of  the  difficulty.  He 
made  no  scruple  about  using  '  Salvator '  ;  observing 
with  a  true  insight  into  the  conditions  under  which 
new  words  should  be  admitted,  that  however  *  Salva- 
tor *  might  not  have  been  good  Latin  before  the 
Saviour  came.  He  by  his  coming  had  made  it  such  ; 
for,  as  shadows  wait  upon  substances,  so  words  wait 
upon  things.*     Take  another  example.     It  seemed 

*  Serm.  299.  6  :  Christus  Jesus,  id  est  Christus  Salvator :  hoc  est 
enim  Latin6  Jesus.  Nee  quserant  grammatici  quim  sit  Latinum,  sed 
Christiani.  quim  verum.  Salus  enim  Latinum  nomen  est  ;  salvare  et 
salvator  non  fuerunt  hajc  Latina,  antequam  veniret  Salvator  :  quando 
ad  Latinos  venit,  et  hoec  Latina  fecit.  Cf.  De  Trin.  13.  10  :  Quod 
verbum  [salvator]  Latina  lingua  antea  non  habebat,  sed  habere  polerat ; 
sicut  potuit  quando  voluit.  Other  words  which  we  owe  to  Christian 
Latin,  probably  to  the  Vulgate  or  to  the  earlier  Latin  translations,  are 
these — 'carnalis,'  '  compassio,'  'deltas'  (Augustine,  Civ.Dei^  7.  i), 
'glorifico,'  *  incarnatio,'  'justifico,'  *justificatio,'  'longanimitas,' 
*passio,'  'prredestinatio,'  'refrigerium,'  *  regeneratio,'  *  resipiscentia,* 
*revelatio,'  '  sanctificatio,'  •  soliloquium,'  «  sufficient ia,'  'superero- 
gatio,'  *  tribulatio.'     Many  of  these  may  seem  barbarous  to  the  Latin 


ENLARGEMENTS   OF   SPEECH.  22/ 

SO  natural  a  thing,  in  the  old  heathen  world,  to  ex- 
pose infants,  if  it  was  not  found  convenient  to  rear 
them,  the  crime  excited  so  little  remark,  was  so  little 
regarded  as  a  crime  at  all,  that  it  was  not  worth  while 
to  find  a  name  for  it ;  and  thus  it  is  nothing  wonder- 
ful to  learn  that  the  word  *  infanticidium  '  was  first 
born  in  the  bosom  of  the  Christian  Church.  Tertul- 
lian  is  the  first  in  whose  writings  it  appears. 

Yet  it  is  not  only  when  new  truth,  moral  or  spirit- 
ual, has  thus  to  fit  itself  to  the  lips  of  men,  that  such 
enlargements  of  speech  become  necessary  :  but  in  each 
further  unfolding  of  those  seminal  truths  implanted 
in  man,  at  the  first,  in  each  new  enlargement  of  his 
sphere  of  knowledge,  outward  or  inward,  the  same 
necessities  make  themselves  felt.  The  beginnings 
and  progressive  advances  of  moral  philosophy  in 
Greece,*  the  transplantation  of  the  same  to  Rome, 
the  rise  of  the  scholastic,  and  then  of  the  mystic,  the- 
ology in  the  middle  ages,  the  discoveries  of  modern 
science  and  natural  philosophy,  these  each  and  all 
have  been  accompanied  with  corresponding  exten- 
sions in  the  domain  of  language.  Of  the  words  to 
which  each  of  these  has  in  turn  given  birth  many,  it 
is  true,  have  never  travelled  beyond  their  own  pecu- 
liar sphere,  having  remained  purely  technical,  or 
scientific,  or  theological  to  the  last :  but  many,  too, 
have  passed  over  from  the  laboratory  and  the  school, 
from  the  cloister  and  the  pulpit,  into  daily  use,  and 

scholar,  but  there  is  hardly  one  of  them  which  does  not  imply  a  new- 
thought,  or  a  new  feeling,  or  the  sense  of  a  new  relation  of  man  to  God 
or  to  his  fellow-man. 
*  See  Lobeck,  Phrynichus^  p.  350. 


228  ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW  WORDS. 

have,  with  the  ideas  which  they  incorporate,  become 
the  common  heritage  of  all.  For  however  hard  and 
repulsive  a  front  any  study  or  science  may  present  to 
the  great  body  of  those  who  are  as  laymen  in  regard 
of  it,  there  is  yet  inevitably  such  a  detrition  as  this 
continually  going  forward,  and  one  which  it  would  be 
well  worth  while  to  trace  in  detail. 

Where  the  movement  is  a  popular  one,  stirring  the 
heart  and  mind  of  a  people  to  its  depths,  there  these 
new  words  will  be  for  the  most  part  born  out  of  their 
bosom,  a  free  spontaneous  birth,  seldom  or  never 
capable  of  being  referred  to  one  man  more  than 
another,  because  they  belong  to  all.  Where,  on  the 
contrary,  the  movement  is  more  strictly  theological, 
or  has  for  its  sphere  those  regions  of  science  and 
philosophy,  where,  as  first  pioneers  and  discoverers, 
only  a  few  can  bear  their  parts,  there  the  additions  to 
the  language  and  extensions  of  it  will  lack  something 
of  the  freedom,  the  unconscious  boldness,  which  mark 
the  others.  Their  character  will  be  more  artificial, 
less  spontaneous,  although  here  also  the  creative 
genius  of  the  single  man,  as  there  of  the  nation,  will 
oftentimes  set  its  mark  ;  and  many  a  single  word  will 
come  forth,  which  will  be  the  result  of  profound  medi- 
tation, or  of  intuitive  genius,  or  of  both  in  happiest 
combination — many  a  word,  which  shall  as  a  torch 
illuminate  vast  regions  comparatively  obscure  before, 
and,  it  may  be,  cast  its  rays  far  into  the  yet  unex- 
plored darkness  beyond  ;  or  which,  summing  up  into 
itself  all  the  acquisitions  in  a  particular  direction  of  the 
past,  shall  be  as  a  mighty  vantage  ground  from  which 
to  advance  to  new  conquests  in  those  realms  of  mind 


THE  POET  A  MAKER.  229 

or  of  nature,  not  as  yet  subdued  to  the  intellect  of 
man. 

*  Cosmopolite '  has  often  now  a  shallow  or  even  a 
mischievous  use,  and  he  who  calls  himself  a  *  cosmo- 
polite '  may  only  mean  that  he  is  not  a  patriot,  that 
his  native  country  does  not  possess  his  love.  Yet  .as 
all  must  admit,  he  could  have  been  no  common  man 
who,  before  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  launched 
this  word  upon  the  world,  and  claimed  this  name  for 
himself.  Nor  was  he  ;  for  Diogenes  the  Cynic, 
whose  sayings  are  among  the  most  notable  in  anti- 
quity, was  its  author.  Being  demanded  of  what  city 
or  country  he  was,  Diogenes  answered  that  he  was  a 
*  cosmopolite  ' ;  in  this  word  widening  the  range  of 
men's  thoughts,  bringing  in  not  merely  a  word  new 
to  Greek  ears,  but  a  thought  which,  however  com- 
monplace and  familiar  to  us  now,  must  have  been 
most  novel  and  startling  to  those  whom  he  addressed. 
I  am  far  from  asserting  that  contempt  for  his  citizen- 
ship in  its  narrower  sense  may  not  have  mingled  with 
this  his  challenge  for  himself  of  a  citizenship  wide  as 
the  world  ;  but  there  was  not  the  less  a  very  re- 
markable reaching  out  here  after  truths  which  were 
not  fully  born  into  the  world  until  He  came,  in  whom 
and  in  whose  Church  all  national  differences  and  dis- 
tinctions were  done  away. 

As  occupying  somewhat  of  a  middle  place  between 
those  more  deliberate  word-makers  and  the  multi- 
tude whose  words  rather  grow  than  are  made,  we 
must  not  omit  him  who  is  a  maker  by  the  very  right 
of  his  name — I  mean,  the  poet.  That  creative  energy 
with  which  he  is  endowed,  "the  high-flying  liberty 


230  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

of  conceit  proper  to  the  poet,"  will  not  fail  to  mani- 
fest itself  in  this  region  as  in  others.  Extending  the 
domain  of  thought  and  feeling,  he  will  scarcely  fail  to 
extend  that  also  of  language,  which  does  not  willingly 
lag  behind.  And  the  loftier  his  moods,  the  more  of 
this  maker  he  will  be.  The  passion  of  such  times,  the 
all-fusing  imagination,  will  at  once  suggest  and  justify 
audacities  in  speech,  upon  which  in  calmer  moods  he 
would  not  have  ventured,  or,  venturing,  would  have 
failed  to  carry  others  with  him  :  for  only  the  metal 
which  is  fluent  runs  easily  into  novel  shapes  and 
moulds.  It  is  not  merely  that  the  old  and  the  familiar 
will  often  become  new  in  his  hands  ;  that  he  will  give 
the  stamp  of  allowance,  as  to  him  will  be  free  to  do, 
to  words,  should  he  count  them  worthy,  which  hith- 
erto have  lived  only  on  the  lips  of  the  people,  or  been 
confined  to  some  single  dialect  and  province  ;  but  he 
will  enrich  his  native  tongue  with  words  unknown 
and  non-existent  before — non-existent,  that  is,  save 
in  their  elements  ;  for  in  the  historic  period  of  a  lan- 
guage it  is  not  permitted  to  any  man  to  do  more  than 
work  on  pre-existent  materials  ;  to  evolve  what  is 
latent  therein,  to  combine  what  is  apart,  to  recall 
what  has  fallen  out  of  sight. 

But  to  return  to  the  more  deliberate  coining  of 
words.  New  necessities  have  within  the  last  few 
years  called  out  several  of  these  deliberate  creations 
in  our  own  language.  The  almost  simultaneous  dis- 
covery of  such  large  abundance  of  gold  in  so  many 
quarters  of  the  world  led  some  nations  so  much  to 
dread  an  enormous  depreciation  of  this  metal,  that 
they  ceased  to  make  it  the  standard  of  value — Hoi- 


ASSIMILATION  AND   DISSIMILATION.  23 1 

land  for  instance  did  so  for  awhile,  though  she  has, 
since  changed  her  mind  ;  and  it  has  been  found  con- 
venient to  invent  a  word,  *  to  demonetize,'  to  express 
this  process  of  turning  a  precious  metal  from  being 
the  legal  standard  into  a  mere  article  of  commerce. 
So,  too,  diplomacy  has  recently  added  more  than 
one  new  word  to  our  vocabulary.  I  suppose  nobody 
ever  heard  of  '  extradition  '  till  within  the  last  few 
years  ;  nor  of  *  neutralization  '  till  in  the  treaty  of 
peace  which  followed  the  Crimean  War  the  *  neutrali- 
zation '  of  the  Black  Sea  was  made  one  of  the  stipu- 
lations. *  Secularization,'  in  like  manner,  owes  its 
birth  to  the  long  negotiations  which  preceded  the 
Treaty  of  Westphalia.  Whenever  it  was  found  difficult 
to  find  anywhere  else  compensation  for  some  powerful 
claimant,  there  was  always  some  abbey  or  bishopric 
which  with  its  revenues  might  be  seized,  stripped  of 
its  ecclesiastical  character,  and  turned  into  a  secular 
possession.  Our  manifold  points  of  contact  with  the 
East,  the  necessity  which  has  thus  arisen  of  represent- 
ing oriental  words  to  the  western  world  by  means  of 
an  alphabet  which  is  not  theirs,  with  the  manifold  dis- 
cussions on  the  fittest  equivalents,  all  this  has  brought 
with  it  the  need  of  a  word  which  should  describe  the 
process,  and  *  transliteration'  is  the  result. 

We  have  long  had  *  assimilation  '  in  our  dictiona- 
ries ;  '  dissimilation  '  has  as  yet  scarcely  found  its  way 
into  them,  but  it  speedily  will.  It  will  appear  first,  if  it 
has  not  already  appeared,  in  our  books  on  language.* 
I    express  myself  with    this  confidence,  because  ad- 

*  Pott  {Etym.  Forsch.  vol.  ii,  p.  65)  has  introduced  it  into  German. 


232  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

varices  in  philology  have  rendered  it  a  matter  of 
necessity  that  we  should  possess  a  word  to  designate 
a  certain  process  which  words  unconsciously  un- 
dergo, -  and  no  other  would  designate  it  at  all  so 
well.  There  is  a  process  of  'assimilation'  going 
on  very  extensively  in  language  ;  the  organs  of 
speech  finding  themselves  helped  by  changing  one 
letter  for  another  which  has  just  occurred,  or  will 
just  occur  in  a  word  ;  thus  we  say  not  *  a<^iance  '  but 

*  a^iance,'  not  *  re;/ow;;^,'  as  our  ancestors  did  when 

*  renommee'  was  first  naturalized,  but  *  re/zow;/ ';  we 
say  too,  though  we  do  not  write  it,  *  cupboard  '  and 
not  *  cu/board,'  '  subtle  *  and  not  *  subtle.'  But  side 
by  side  with  this  there  is  another  opposite  process, 
where  some  letter  would  recur  too  often  for  euphony 
or  ease  in  speaking,  were  the  strict  form  of  the  word 
too  closely  held  fast ;  and  where  consequently  this 
letter  is  exchanged  for  some  other,  generally  for 
some  nearly  allied  ;  thus  *  caeruleus '  was  once  *  cae/u- 
Icus,*  from  caelum  ;  *  meridies  *  is  for  '  medidies,*  or 
medius  dies.  In  the  same  way  the  Italians  prefer 
'  ve/e;/o  '  to   *  ve7/e;/o  '  ;  the   Germans  '  kartofifel '   to 

*  tartufifel,*  the  original  name  of  the  potato  ;  and  we 
'  cinnamow '  to  *  cinnamo;;/ '  (the  earlier  form).  So 
too  in  '  turtle  *  ^  marble,'  *  purple  '  we  have  shrunk 
from  the  double  *  r'  of  *  turtur,'  *  marmor,'  *  pur- 
pura '  ;  and  this  process  of  making  unlike,  requiring 
a  term  to  express  it,  will  create,  has  indeed  already 
created,  the  word  *  dissimilation,'  which  will  presently 
establish  itself  in  far  wider  than  its  primary  use.* 

*  See  D wight,  Modern  Philology ,  2d  Series,  p.   loo ;  and  Heyse, 
System  lUr  Sprachwissenschafiy  g  139-141. 


DEFICIENCIES   OF  LANGUAGE.  233 

New  necessities,  new  evolutions  of  society  into 
more  complex  conditions,  evoke  new  words ;  which 
come  forth,  because  they  are  required  now  ;  but  did 
not  formerly  exist,  because  in  an  anterior  period  they 
were  not  required.  For  example,  in  Greece  so  long 
as  the  poet  sang  his  own  verses,  *  singer '  (aoi,Sb<^) 
sufficiently  expressed  the  double  function  ;  such  a 
*  singer '  was  Homer,  and  such  Homer  describes  Dem- 
odocus,  the  bard  of  the  Phaeacians  ;  that  double  func- 
tion, in  fact,  not  being  in  his  time  contemplated  as 
double,  but  each  of  its  parts  so  naturally  completing 
the  other,  that  no  second  word  was  required.  When, 
however,  in  the  division  of  labor  one  made  the  verses 
which  another  chanted,  then  *  poet '  or  *  maker,'  a 
word  unknown  to  the  Homeric  age,  arose.  In  like 
manner,  when  *  physicians '  were  the  only  natural 
philosophers,  the  word  covered  this  meaning  as  well  as 
that  other  which  it  still  retains  ;  but  when  the  inves- 
tigation of  nature  and  natural  causes  detached  itself 
from  the  art  of  heahng,  became  an  independent 
study,  the  name  *  physician  '  remained  to  that  which 
was  as  the  stock  and  'stem  of  the  art,  while  the  new 
offshoot  sought  out  a  new  name  for  itself. 

But  it  is  not  merely  new  things  which  will  require 
new  names.  It  will  often  be  discovered  that  old 
things  have  not  got  a  name  at  all,  or,  having  one,  are 
compelled  to  share  it  with  something  else,  to  the  great 
detriment  pf  both.  The  manner  in  which  men  be- 
come aware  of  such  deficiencies,  is  commonly  this. 
Comparing  their  own  language  with  another,  and  in 
some  aspects  a  richer,  compelled  it  may  be  to  such 


234  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

comparison  through  having   undertaken   to   transfer 
treasures  of  that  language  into   their  own,  they  be- 
come  conscious  of  much  which  it  is  worth  while   to 
utter  in  human   speech,  which    is   plainly  utterable 
therein,  since  another  language  has  found  utterance 
for  it,  but  which  hitherto  has  found  no  voice  in  their 
own.     Hereupon  with  more  or  less  success  they  pro- 
ceed to  supply  the  deficiency.     Hardly  in  any  other 
way  would  the  wants  which  are  thus  revealed  make 
themselves  felt  even  by  the  most  thoughtful  ;  for  lan- 
guage is  to  so  large  an  extent  the  condition  and  limit 
of  thought,  men  are  so  little  accustomed,  indeed  so 
little  able,  to  meditate  on  things,  except  through  the 
intervention,  and  by  the  machinery,  of  words,  that 
the  absence  of  words  from  a  language  almost  neces- 
sarily brings  with  it  the  absence  of  any  sense  of  that 
absence.      Here   is  one   advantage  of  acquaintance 
with    other   languages   besides    our  own,  and  of  the 
institution    which   will     follow,    if  we   have   learned 
those  other  to  any   purpose,   of  these  comparisons, 
namely,  that  we  thus  become  aware  that  names  are 
not,  and  least  of  all  the  names  in  any  one  language, 
coextensive    with    things  (and    by  *  things  '  I  •  mean 
subjects  as  well  as  objects  of  thought,  whatever  one 
can  think  about),  that  innumerable  things  and  aspects 
of  things  exist,  which,  though  capable  of  being  re- 
sumed and  connoted  in  a  word,  are  yet  without  one, 
unnamed  and  unregistered  ;  and  thus,  vast  as  is  the 
world  of  names,  that  the  world  of  realities  is  even 
vaster   still.      Such    discoveries  the    Romans    made, 
when  they  sought  to  transplant  the  moral  philosophy 
of  Greece  to  an  Italian  soil.      They  found  that  many 


CICERO'S   WORDS.  2$$ 

of  its  terms  had  no  equivalents  with  them  :  which 
equivalents  therefore  they  proceeded  to  devise  for 
themselves,  appealing  for  this  to  the  latent  capabili- 
ties of  their  own  tongue.  For  example,  the  Greek 
schools  had  a  word,  and  one  playing  no  unimportant 
part  in  some  of  their  philosophical  systems,  to  ex- 
press '  apathy,'  or  the  absence  of  all  passion  and 
pain.  As  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  possess  a 
corresponding  word,  Cicero  invented  *  indolentia,' 
as  that  *'  if  I  may  so  speak,"  with  which  he  paves  the 
way  to  his  first  introduction  of  it,  manifestly 
declares.* 

Sometimes,  indeed,  such  a  skilful  mint-master  of 
words,  such  a  subtle  watcher  and  weigher  of  their 
force  t  as  was  Cicero,  will  have  noted  even  apart  from 
this  comparison  with  other  languages,  an  omission  in 
his  own,  which  thereupon  he  will  endeavor  to  supply. 
Thus  the  Latin  had  two  adjectives  which,  though 
not  kept  apart  as  strictly  as  they  might  have  been, 
possessed  each  its  pecuHar  meaning,  *  invidus,'  one 
who  is  envious,  *  invidiosus,'  one  who  excites  envy  in 
others  ;  f  at  the  same  time  there  was  only  one  sub- 
stantive, '  invidia,'the  correlative  of  them  both  ;  with 
the  disadvantage,  therefore,  of  being  employed  now  in 
an  active,  now  in  a  passive  sense,  now  for  the  envy 
which  men  feel,  and  now  for  the  envy  which  they 
excite.     The  word  he  saw  was  made  to  do  double 

*  Fin.  ii.  4;  and  for  'qualitas'  see  Acac/.  i.  6. 

f  I  He  verborum  vigilantissimus  appensor  ac  mensor,  as  Augustine 
happily  terms  him. 

:j:  Thus  the  monkish  line  : 

*  Invidiosus  ego,  non  invidus  esse  laboro. 


236  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

duty,  saw  that  under  a  seeming  unity  there  lurked  a 
real  dualism,  from  which  manifold  confusions  might 
follow.  He  therefore  devised  *  invidentia,'  to  express 
the  active  envy,  or  the  envying,  no  doubt  desiring  that 

*  invidia '  should  be  restrained  to  the  passive,  the  being 
envied.  '  Invidentia  '  to  all  appearance  supplied  a 
real  want ;  yet  he  did  not  succeed  in  giving  it  cur- 
rency ;  does  not  seem  himself  to  have  much  cared 
to  employ  it  again.* 

We  see  by  this  example  that  not  every  word  which 
even  a  master  of  language  proposes,  finds  accept- 
ance ;  t  for,  as  Dryden  has  said,  "It  is  one  thing  to 
draw  a  bill  and  another  to  have  it  accepted."  Pro- 
vided some  live,  he  must  be  content  that  others 
should  fall  to  the  ground  and  die.  Nor  is  this  the 
only  unsuccessful  candidate  for  admission  into  the 
language  which  Cicero  put  forward.  His  *  indolen- 
tia,'  which  I  mentioned  just  now,  hardly  passed  be- 
yond himself;!  his  '  vitiositas,' §  '  indigentia,' ||  and 

*  mulierositas,'^[  not  at  all.    *  Beatitas  '  too  and  '  beati- 

♦  Ti4sc.  iii.  9 ;  iv.  8 ;  cf.  Doderlein,  Synon.  vol.  iii.  p.  68. 

f  Quintilian's  advice,  based  on  this  fact,  is  good  (i.  6,  42) :  Etiamsi 
potest  nihil  peccare,  qui  utitur  lis  verbis  qua:  summi  auctores  tradide- 
runt,  multum  tamen  refert  non  solum  quid  dixerint,  sed  etiam  quid 
persnaserint.  He  himself,  as  he  informs  us,  invented  '  vocalitas '  to 
correspond  with  the  Greek  €v<p(ovia  {lustit.  i.  5.  24),  but  I  am  not 
aware  that  he  found  any  imitators. 

X  Thus  Seneca  a  little  later  is  unaware,  or  has  forgotten,  that  Cicero 
made  any  such  suggestion.  Taking  no  notice  of  it,  he  proposes 
'  impatientia '  as  an  adequate  rendering  of  airaOeia.  There  clung  this 
inconvenience  to  the  word,  as  he  himself  allowed,  that  it  was  already 
used  in  exactly  the  opposite  sense  {Ep.  9).  Elsewhere  he  claims  to  be 
the  inventor  of  •essentia'  {Ep,  38). 

§  Ti4sc.  iv.  15.  \  Ibid.  iv.  9.  21.  \  Ihid.  iv.  u. 


COMPREHENSIVE  WORDS.  237 

tudo,'  *  both  of  his  coining,  yet,  as  he  owns  himself, 
with  something  strange  and  uncouth  about  them, 
found  almost  no  acceptance  at  all  in  the  classical 
Hterature  of  Rome  :  '  beatitudo,'  indeed,  obtained  a 
home,  as  it  deserved  to  do,  in  the  Christian  Church, 
but  *  beatitas '  made  no  way  whatsoever.  Cole- 
ridge's *  esemplastic,'  by  which  he  was  fain  to  express 
the  all-atoning  or  unifying  power  of  the  imagination, 
has  not  pleased  others  at  all  in  the  measure  in  which 
it  pleased  himself;  while  the  words  of  Jeremy  Tay- 
lor, of  such  Latinists  as  Sir  Thomas  Browne  and 
Henry  More,  words  born  only  to  die,  are  multitu- 
dinous as  the  leaves  of  autumn.t  Still  even  the 
word  which  fails  is  often  an  honorable  testimony  to 
the  scholarship,  or  the  exactness  of  thought,  or  the 
imagination  of  its  author ;  and  Ben  Jonson  is  over- 
hard  on  *  neologists,'  if  I  may  bring  this  term  back 
to  its  earlier  meaning,  when  he  says:  '*  A  man 
coins  not  a  new  word  without  some  peril,  and  less 
fruit ;  for  if  it  happen  to  be  received,  the  praise  is 
but  moderate  ;  if  refused,  the  scorn  is  assured."  X 

I  spoke  just  now  of  comprehensive  words,  which 
should  singly  say  what  hitherto  it  had  taken  many 
words  to  say,  in  which  a  higher  term  has  been 
reached  than  before  had  been  attained.  The  value 
of  these  is  immense.  By  the  cutting  short  of  lengthy 
explanations  and  tedious  circuits  of  language,  they 
facilitate   mental   processes,    which   would    often   be 

*  JVat.  Deor.  i.  34. 

\  See  my  English  Past  and  Presetit^  9th  edit.  p.  108 

\  Therefore  the  maxim  : 

Moribus  antiquis,  prsesentibus  utere  verbis. 


238  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

nearly  or  quite  impossible  without  them  ;  and  those 
who  have  invented  or  put  these  into  circulation,  are 
benefactors  of  a  high  order  to  knowledge.  In  the 
ordinary  traffic  of  life,  unless  our  dealings  are  on  the 
smallest  scale,  we  willingly  have  about  us  our  money 
in  the  shape  rather  of  silver  than  of  copper  ;  and  if 
our  transactions  are  at  all  extensive,  rather  in  gold 
than  in  silver :  while,  if  we  were  setting  forth  upon  a 
long  and  costly  journey,  we  should  be  best  pleased  to 
turn  even  our  gold  coin  itself  into  bills  of  exchange 
or  circular  notes  ;  in  fact,  into  the  highest  denomina- 
tion of  money  which  it  was  capable  of  assuming. 
How  many  words  with  which  we  are  now  perf&ctly 
familiar  are  for  us  what  the  bill  of  exchange  or  circu- 
lar note  is  for  the  traveller  and  the  merchant.  As  in 
one  of  these  innumerable  pence,  a  multitude  of  shil- 
ings,  not  a  few  pounds  are  gathered  up  and  repre- 
sented, so  have  we  in  some  single  word  the  quint- 
essence and  final  result  of  an  infinite  number  of 
anterior  mental  processes,  ascending  one  above  the 
other,  until  all  have  been  at  length  summed  up  for  us 
in  that  single  word.  This  last  may  be  compared  to 
nothing  so  fitly  as  to  some  mighty  river,  which  does 
not  bring  its  flood  of  waters  to  the  sea,  till  many  rills 
have  been  swallowed  up  in  brooks,  and  brooks  in 
streams,  and  streams  in  tributary  rivers,  each  of  these 
affluents  having  lost  its  separate  name  and  existence 
in  that  which  at  last  represents  and  is  continent  of 
them  all. 

Science  is  an  immense  gainer  by  words  which  thus 
say  singly,  what  whole  sentences  would  otherwise 
have  scarcely   said.     Thus   *  isothermal  *    is   quite   a 


COMPREHENSIVE  WORDS.  239 

modern  invention  ;  but  how  much  is  summed  up  by 
the  word ;  what  a  long  story  is  saved,  as  often  as  we 
speak  of  '  isothermal '  lines.  Physiologists  have  given 
the  name  of  '  atavism  '  to  the  emerging  again  of  a 
face  in  a  family  after  its  disappearance  during  two  or 
three  generations.  What  would  have  else  needed  a 
sentence  is  here  accomplished  by  a  word.  Bacon 
somewhere  describes  a  certain  candidate  for  the  chair 
of  S.  Peter  as  being  '  papable.'  I  do  not  mean  that 
he  invented  the  word  ;  but  using  it  he  declared  that 
there  met  in  him  all  the  conditions,  and  they  were 
many,  which  would  admit  the  choice  of  the  Conclave 
faUing  upon  him.  When  Aristotle,  in  the  opening 
sentences  of  his  Rhetoric,  declares  that  rhetoric  and 
logic  are  '  antistrophic,'  what  a  wonderful  insight  into 
both,  and  above  all  into  their  relations  to  one  another, 
does  the  word  impart  to  those  who  have  any  such 
special  training  as  enables  them  to  take  in  all  which 
hereby  he  intends.  Or  take  a  word  so  familiar  as 
*  circle.'  How  much  must  have  gone  before,  ere  the 
word,  with  its  corresponding  idea,  could  have  existed  ; 
and  then  imagine  how  it  would  fare  with  us,  if,  as 
often  as  in  some  long  and  difficult  mathematical 
problem  we  needed  to  refer  to  this  figure,  we  were 
obliged  to  introduce  its  entire  definition,  no  single 
word  representing  it ;  and  not  this  only,  but  the 
definition  of  each  term  employed  in  the  definition  ; — 
how  well-nigh  impossible  it  would  prove  to  carry  the 
whole  process  in  the  mind,  or  to  take  oversight  of  all 
its  steps.  Imagine  a  few  more  words  struck  out  of 
the  vocabulary  of  the  mathematician,  and  if  all 
activity  and  advance  in  his  proper  domain  was  not 


240  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

altogether  arrested,  yet  would  it  be  as  effectually  re- 
strained and  hampered  as  commercial  intercourse 
would  be,  if  in  all  its  transactions  iron  or  copper  were 
the  sole  medium  of  exchange.  Wherever  any  science 
is  progressive,  there  will  be  progress  in  its  nomen- 
clature as  well.  Words  will  keep  pace  with  things, 
and  with  more  or  less  felicity  resuming  in  themselves 
the  labors  of  the  past,  will  at  once  assist  and  abridge 
the  labors  of  the  future  ;  Hke  tools  which,  themselves 
the  result  of  the  finest  mechanical  skill,  do  at  the  same 
time  render  other  and  further  triumphs  of  art  possi- 
ble, such  as  would  have  been  quite  unattainable  with- 
out them.* 

It  is  not  merely  the  widening  of  men's  intellectual 
horizon,  which,  bringing  new  thoughts  within  the 
range  of  their  vision,  compels  the  origination  of  cor- 
responding words  ;  but  as  often  as  regions  of  this 
outward  world  hitherto  closed  are  laid  open,  the 
novel  objects  of  interest  which  these  contain  will  de- 
mand to  find  their  names,  and  not  merely  to  be  cata- 
logued in  the  nomenclature  of  science,  but,  so  far  as 
they  present  themselves  to  the  popular  eye,  will  re- 
quire to  be  popularly  named.  When  a  new  thing,  a 
plant,  or  fruit,  or  animal,  or  whatever  else  it  may  be, 
is  imported  from  some  foreign  Igjnd,  or  so  comes 
within  the  sphere  of  knowledge  that  it  needs  to  be 
thus  named,  there  are  various  ways  by  which  this 
may  be  done.  The  first  and  commonest  way  is  to 
import  the  name  and  the  thing  together,  incorporat- 
ing the  former,  unchanged,  or  with  slight  modifica- 

*  See  Mill,  System  of  Logic ^  iv.  6.  3. 


CHOICE  OF  NAMES.  241 

tion,  into  the  language.  Thus  we  did  with  the  pota- 
to, which  is  only  another  form  of  '  batata/  in  which 
shape  the  original  Indian  word  appears  in  our  earlier 
voyagers.  But  this  is  not  the  only  way  of  naming  ; 
and  the  example  on  which  I  have  just  lighted  affords 
good  illustration  of  various  other  methods  which  may 
be  adopted.  Thus  a  name  belonging  to  something 
else,  which  the  new  object  nearly  resembles,  may  be 
transferred  to  it,  and  the  confusion  arising  from  call- 
ing different  things  by  the  same  name  disregarded. 
It  was  thus  in  German,  *  kartoffel '  being  only  a  cor- 
ruption, which  found  place  in  the  last  century,  of 

*  tartiiffel,'  properly  the  name  of  the  truffle  ;  but 
which  not  the  less  was  transferred  to  the  potato,  on 
the  ground  of  the  many  resemblances  between  them. 
Or  again  this  same  transfer  may  take  place,  but  with 
some  qualifying  or  distinguishing  addition.  This 
course  the  Italians  took.     They  also  called  the  potato 

*  tartufo,'  but  added  '  bianco,'  the  white  truffle  ;  a 
name  now  giving  way  to  *  patata.'  Thus  was  it,  too, 
with  the  French  ;  who  called  it  apple,  but  '  apple  of 
the  earth  ' ;  even  as  in  many  of  the  provincial  dialects 
of  Germany  it  bears  the  name  of  '  erdappel '  or  earth- 
apple  at  this  day. 

It  will  sometimes  happen  that  a  language,  having 
thus  to  provide  a  new  name  for  a  new  thing,  will 
seem  for  a  season  not  to  have  made  up  its  mind  by 
which  of  these  methods  it  shall  do  it.  Two  names 
will  exist  side  by  side,  and  only  after  a  time  will  one 
gain  the  upper  hand  of  the  other.  Thus  when  the 
pineapple  was  introduced  into  England  it  brought 
with  it,  probably  from  the  East,  the  name  of 
II 


242  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

*  ananas  '  or  *  anana,'  under  which  last  form  it  is  cele- 
brated by  Thomson  in  his  Seaso7is.  This  name  has 
been  nearly  or  quite  superseded  by  *  pineapple,' 
manifestly  suggested  by  the  likeness  of  the  new  fruit 
to  the  cone  of  the  pine.  It  is  not  a  very  happy  for- 
mation ;    for  it  is  not  likeness,  but  identity y  which 

*  pineapple '  implies  ;  and  it  gives  some  excuse  to  an 
error,  which  up  to  a  very  late  day  ran  through  all 
German-English  and  French-English  dictionaries ; 
I  know  not  whether  even  now  it  has  disappeared. 
In  all  of  these  *  pineapple '  is  rendered  as  though  it 
signified  not  the  anana,  but  this  cone  of  the  pine ; 
and  not  very  long  ago,  the  Journal  des  Debats,  the 
Times  of  France,  made  some  uncomplimentary  ob- 
servations on  the  voracity  of  the  English,  who  could 
wind  up  a  Lord  Mayor's  dinner  with  fir-cones  for 
dessert. 

Sometimes  the  name  adopted  will  be  one  drawn 
from  an  intermediate  language,  through  which  we 
first  became  acquainted  with  the  object  requiring  to 
be  named.  *  Alligator '  is  an  example  of  this. 
When  that  ugly  crocodile  of  the  New  World  was  first 
seen  by  the  Spanish  discoverers,  they  called  it,  with 
a  true  insight  into  its  species,  '  el  lagarto,'  the  lizard, 
as  being  the  largest  of  that  lizard  species  to  which  it 
belonged,  or  indeed  sometimes  *  el  lagarto  de  las 
Indias,'  the  Indian  lizard.  In  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's 
Discovery  of  Guiana  the  word  still  retains  its  Span- 
ish form.  Sailing  up  the  Orinoco,  "  we  saw  in  it," 
he  says,  "  divers  sorts  of  strange  fishes  of  marvellous 
bigness,  but  for  lagartos  it  exceeded  ;  for  there  were 
thousands  of  these  ugly  serpents,  and  the  people  call 


DISHONORABLE  WORDS.  243 

it,  for  the  abundance  of  them,  the  river  of  lagartos^ 
in  their  language."  We  can  explain  the  shape  which 
with  us  the  word  gradually  assumed,  by  supposing 
that  EngHsh  sailors  who  brought  it  home,  and  had 
continually  heard,  but  may  have  never  seen  it  writ- 
ten, blended,  as  in  similar  instances  has  often  hap- 
pened, the  Spanish  article  '  el '  with  the  name.  In 
Ben  Jonson's  *  alligarta,'  we  note  the  word  in  process 
of  transformation.* 

Less  honorable  causes  than  some  which  I  have 
mentioned,  give  birth  to  new  words  ;  which  will 
sometimes  reflect  back  a  very  fearful  light  on  the 
moral  condition  of  that  epoch  in  which  first  they  saw 
the  light.     Of  the  Roman  emperor,  Tiberius,  one  of 

*  *  Alcoran '  supplies  another  example  of  this  curious  annexation  of 
the  article.  Examples  of  a  like  absorption  or  incorporation  of  it  are 
to  be  found  in  many  languages ;  in  our  own,  when  we  write  a  newt, 
and  not  an  ewt,  or  when  our  fathers  wrote  a  nydiot  (Sir  T,  More),  and 
not  an  idiot ;  in  the  Italian,  which  has  lonza  for  onza  ;  but  they  are 
still  more  numerous  in  French.  Thus  '  lierre,'  ivy,  was  written  by 
Ronsard,  '  I'hierre,'  which  is  correct,  being  the  Latin  '  hedera.'  *  Lin- 
got  '  is  our  '  ingot,'  but  with  fusion  of  the  article  ;  in  '  larigot '  and 
*loricot '  the  word  and  the  article  have. in  the  same  manner  grown  to- 
gether.    In  old  French  it  was  *  I'endemain,'  or,  le  jour  en  demain : 

*  le  lendemain,'  as  now  written,  is  a  barbarous  excess  of  expression. 

*  La  Pouille,'  a  name  given  to  the  southern  extremity  of  Italy,  and  in 
which  we  recognize  *  Apulia,'  is  another  variety  of  error,  but  moving 
in  the  same  sphere  (Genin,  Rkreations  Fhilologiques,  vol.  i.  pp.  102- 
105) ;  of  the  same  variety  is  *  La  Natolie,'  which  was  written  '  L'Ana- 
tolie'  once.  An  Irish  scholar  has  observed  that  in  modern  Irish  *an' 
(=1' the')  is  frequently  thus  absorbed  in  the  names  of  places,  as  in 
'Nenagh,'  '  Naul ' ;  while  sometimes  an  error  exactly  the  reverse  of 
this  is  committed,  and  a  letter  supposed  to  be  the  article,  but  in  fact  a 
part  of  the  word,  dropt :  thus  *  Oughaval,'  instead  of  *  Noughhaval ' 
or  New  Habitation. 


244  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

those,  "  inventors  of  evil  things,"  of  whom  S.  Paul 
speaks  (Rom.  i.  30),  Tacitus  informs  us  that  he 
caused  words,  unknown  before,  to  emerge  in  the 
Latin  tongue,  for  the  setting  out  of  wickednesses, 
happily  also  previously  unknown,  which  he  had  in- 
vented. It  was  the  same  frightful  time  which  gave 
birth  to  *  delator,*  alike  to  the  thing  and  to  the  word. 
The  atrocious  attempt  of  Lewis  the  Fourteenth  to 
convert  the  Protestants  in  his  dominions  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  faith  by  quartering  dragoons  upon  them, 
with  license  to  misuse  to  the  uttermost  those  who  re- 
fused to  conform,  this  *  booted  mission '  (mission 
bottee),  as  it  was  facetiously  called  at  the  time,  has 
bequeathed  *  dragonnade '  to  the  French  language. 

*  Refugee '  had  at  the  same  time  its  rise,  and  owed 
it  to  the  same  event.  They  were  called  '  refugies  ' 
or  *  refugees '  who  took  refuge  in  some  land  less  in- 
hospitable than  their  own,  so  to  escape  the  tender 
mercies  of  these  missionaries.  *  Convertisseur '  be- 
longs to  the  same  period.  The  spiritual  factor  was 
so  named  who  undertook  to  convert  the  Protestants 
on  a  large  scale,  receiving  so  much  a  head  for  the 
converts  whom  he  made. 

Our   use    of  '  roue '     throws   light   upon   another 
curious  and  shameful  page  of  French  history.     The 

*  roue,'  a  man  now  of  profligate  character  and  con- 
duct, is  properly  and  primarily  one  broken  on  the 
wheel.  Its  present  and  secondary  meaning  it  derived 
from  that  Duke  of  Orleans  who  was  Regent  of  France 
after  the  death  of  Lewis  the  Fourteenth.  It  was  his 
miserable  pride  to  gather  round  him  companions 
worse,  if  possible,  and  wickeder  than  himself.    These, 


FRENCH   CONTRIBUTIONS.  24$ 

as  the  Duke  of  S.  Simon  assures  us,  he  was  wont  to  call 
his  *  roues  '  ;  every  one  of  them  abundantly  deserving 
to  be  broken  on  the  wheel — which  was  the  punish- 
ment then  reserved  in  France  for  the  worst  malefac- 
tors.* When  we  have  learned  the  pedigree  of  the 
word,  the  man  and  the  age  rise  up  before  us,  glory- 
ing in  their  shame,  and  not  caring  to  pay  to  virtue 
even  that  hypocritical  homage  which  vice  finds  it 
sometimes  convenient  to  render. 

The  great  French  Revolution  made,  as  might  be 
expected,  characteristic  contributions  to  the  French 
language.  It  gives  us  some  insight  into  its  ugHest 
side  to  know  that,  among  other  words,  it  produced 
the  following  :  '  sansculotte,'  '  incivisme,'  *  terror- 
isme,'  *  noyade,'  '  guillotine,'  Manterner.*  Still  later, 
the  French  conquests  in  North  Africa,  and  the  pitiless 
severities  with  which  every  attempt  at  resistance  on 
the  part  of  the  free  tribes  of  the  interior  was  put  down 
and  punished,  have  left  their  mark  on  it  as  well, 
'  razzia,'  which  is  properly  an  Arabic  word,  having 
been  added  to  it,  to  express  the  swift  and  sudden 
sweeping  away  of  a  tribe,  with  its  herds,  its  crops, 
and  all  that  belongs  to  it.  The  Communist  insurrec- 
tion of  1 87 1  has  bequeathed  one  contribution  almost 
as  ugly  as  itself,  namely  '  petroleuse,'  to  the  lan- 
guage. 

But  it  would  ill  become  us  to  look  only  abroad  for 
examples  in  this  kind,  when  perhaps  an  equal  abund- 
ance might  be  found  much  nearer  home.     Words  of 


*  The  '  roues '  themselves  declared  that  the  word  expressed  rather 
their  readiness  to  give  any  proof  of  their  aflfection,  even  to  the  being 
broken  upon  the  wheel,  to  their  protector  and  friend. 


246  ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW   WORDS. 

our  own  keep  record  of  passages  in  our  history  in 
which  we  have  httle  reason  to  glory.  Thus  '  mob  ' 
and  *  sham  '  had  their  birth  in  that  most  disgraceful 
period  of  English  history,  the  interval  between  the 
Restoration  and  Revolution.  *'  I  may  note,"  says 
one  writing  towards  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Charles 
the  Second,  "that  the  rabble  first  changed  their  title 
and  were  called  *  the  mob  '  in  the  assemblies  of  this 
[The  Green  Ribbon]  Club.  It  was  their  beast  of 
burden,  and  called  first  'mobile  vulgus,'  but. fell 
naturally  into  the  contraction  of  one  syllable,  and 
ever  since  is  become  proper  English."  *  At  a  much 
later  date  a  writer  in  The  Spectator  speaks  of  *  mob  ' 
as  still  only  struggling  into  existence.  **  I  dare  not 
answer,"  he  says,  "  that  mob,  rap,  pos,  incog.,  and 
the  like,  will  not  in  time  be  looked  at  as  part  of  our 
tongue."  In  regard  of  '  mob/  the  mobile  multitude, 
swayed  hither  and  thither  by  each  gust  of  passion 
or  caprice,  this,  which  The  Spectator  hardly  expected, 
while  he  confessed  it  possible,  has  actually  taken 
place.  "  It  is  one  of  the  many  words  formerly  slang, 
which  are  now  used  by  our  best  writers,  and  received 
like  pardoned  outlaws,  into  the  body  of  respectable 
citizens."  Again,  though  the  murdering  of  poor 
helpless  lodgers,  afterwards  to  sell  their  bodies  for 
dissection,  can  only  be  regarded  as  the  monstrous 
wickedness  of  one  or  two,  yet  the  verb  '  to  burke,' 

*  North,  Examen,  p.  574;  for  the  origin  of  'sham 'see  p.  231. 
Compare  Swift  in  The  Tatlcr^  No.  ccxxx.  "  I  have  done  the  utmost," 
he  there  says,  "for  some  years  past  to  stop  the  progress  of  *  mob ' 
and  '  banter ' ;  but  have  been  plainly  borne  down  by  numbers,  and 
betrayed  by  those  who  promised  to  assist  me." 


COMIC   WORDS.  247 

drawn  from  the  name  of  a  wretch  who  long  pursued 
this  hideous  traffic,  will  be  evidence  in  all  after  times, 
unless  indeed  its  origin  should  be  forgotten,  to  how 
strange  a  crime  this  age  of  a  boasted  civilization  could 
give  birth.  Nor  less  must  it  be  acknowledged  that 
*  to  ratten  '  is  not  a  pleasant  acquisition  which  the 
language  within  the  last  few  years  has  made. 

We  must  not  count  as  new  words  properly  so 
called,  although  they  may  delay  us  for  a  minute, 
those  comic  words,  most  often  comic  combinations 
formed  at  will,  in  which,  as  plays  and  displays  of 
power,  writers  ancient  and  modern  have  delighted. 
These  for  the  most  part  are  meant  to  do  service  for 
the  moment,  and,  this  done,  to  pass  into  oblivion. 
The  inventors  of  them  themselves  had  no  intention 
of  fastening  them  permanently  on  the  language. 
Thus  Aristophanes  coined  fjueWovcKidco,  to  loiter  like 
Nicias,  with  allusion  to  the  delays  with  which  this 
prudent  commander  sought  to  put  off  the  disastrous 
Sicilian  expedition,  with  other  words  not  a  few,  fa- 
miliar to  every  scholar.  The  humor  will  sometimes 
consist  in  their  enormous  length,*  sometimes  in  their 
mingled  observance  and  transgression  of  the  laws  of 
the  language,  as  in  the  Bavaooraro^  of  the  Greek 
comic  poet,  the  *  patruissimus '  and  *  oculissimus,' 
comic  superlatives  of  patruus  and  oculus,  *  occisissi- 
mus  '  of  occisus  ;  *  dominissimus  '  of  dominus  ;  *  asin- 
issimo '  (Italian)  of  asino  ;  or  in  superlative  piled  on 
superlative,  as  in  the  *  ottimissimo  '  of  the  same  ;  so 


As  in  the  h.fKpnrToXefi.otni'B'nalffrpaTOS  of  Eupolis  ;  the  oTrepfiayopaio- 
XfKido\axavoirto\is  of  Aristophanes. 


248  ON  THE   RISE   OF  NEW   WORDS. 

too  in  the  *  dosones,'  '  dabones/  which  in  Greek  and  in 
medieval  Latin  were  names  given  to  those  who  were 
ever  promising,  ever  saying  **  I  will  give,"  but  never 
crowning  promise  with  performance.  Plautus,  with 
his  exuberant  wit,  and  exulting  in  his  mastery  of  the 
Latin  language,  is  rich  in  these,  *  fustitudinus,'  *  ferri- 
creprinus'  and  the  like  ;  will  put  together  four  or  five 
lines  consisting  wholly  of  comic  combinations  thrown 
off  for  the  occasion.*  Of  the  same  character  is 
Chaucer's  Voctogamy,'  or  eighth  marriage  ;  Butler's 
*  cynarctomachy,*  or  battle  of  a  dog  and  bear. 
Fuller,  when  he  used  *  to  avunculize,'  to  follow  in  the 
steps  of  one's  uncle,  did  not  propose  it  as  a  lasting 
addition  to  the  language ;  Cowper  his  *  extraforan- 
eous  '  and  such  like  as  little. 

Such  are  some  of  the  sources  of  increase  in  the 
wealth  of  a  language  ;  some  of  the  quarters  from 
which  its  vocabulary  is  augmented.  There  have 
been,  from  time  to  time,  those  who  have  so  little  un- 
derstood what  a  language  is,  and  what  are  the  laws 
which  it  obeys,  that  they  have  sought  by  arbitrary 
decrees  of  their  own  to  arrest  its  growth,  have  pro- 
nounced that  it  has  attained  to  the  limits  of  its 
growth,  and  must  not  henceforward  presume  to  de- 
velop itself  further.  Even  Bentley  with  all  his  vigor- 
ous insight  into  things  is  here  at  fault.  **  It  were  no 
difficult  contrivance,"  he  says,  "  if  the  public  had  any 
regard  to  it,  to  make  the  English  tongue  immutable, 
unless  hereafter  some  foreign  nation  shall  invade 
and  overrun  us."t     But  a  language  has  a   life,  as 

♦  Persa^  iv.  6,  20-23.  t  ^i^orks^  vol.  ii.  p.  13. 


RESISTANCE  TO   NEW  WORDS.  249 

truly  as  a  man,  or  as  a  tree.  As  a  man,  It  must 
grow  to  its  full  stature  ;  unless  Indeed  Its  life  is  pre- 
maturely abridged  by  violence  from  without ;  even 
as  it  is  also  submitted  to  his  conditions  of  decay. 
As  a  forest  tree,  it  will  defy  any  feeble  bands  which 
should  attempt  to  control  its  expansion,  so  long  as 
the  principle  of  growth  is  in  it ;  as  a  tree  too  it  will 
continually,  while  it  casts  off  some  leaves,  be  putting 
forth  others.  And  thus  all  such  attempts  have 
utterly  failed,  even  when  made  under  conditions  the 
most  favorable  for  success.  The  French  Academy, 
numbering  all  or  nearly  all  the  most  distinguished 
writers  of  France,  once  sought  to  exercise  such  a 
domination  over  their  own  language,  and  might  have 
hoped  to  succeed,  If  success  had  been  possible  for 
any.  But  the  language  heeded  their  decrees  as  little 
as  the  advancing  tide  heeded  those  of  Canute. 
Could  they  hope  to  keep  out  of  men's  speech,  or 
even  out  of  their  books,  however  they  excluded  from 
their  own  Dictionary ^  such  words  as  '  blague,* 
*  blagueur,'  '  blaguer,'  because,  being  born  of  the 
people,  they  had  the  people's  mark  upon  them  ? 
After  fruitless  resistance  for  a  time,  they  have  In 
cases  Innumerable  been  compelled  to  give  way — 
though  In  favor  of  the  words  just  cited  they  have 
not  yielded  yet — and  In  each  successive  edition  of 
their  Dictionary  have  thrown  open  Its  doors  to  words 
which  had  estabUshed  themselves  in  the  language, 
and  would  hold  their  ground  there,  altogether  Indif- 
ferent whether  they  received  the  Academy's  seal  of 
allowance  or  not.* 

*  Nisard  {Curiositis  de  Ptltym.  Fran(.  p.   195)  has  an  article  on 


250  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

A  French  scholar,  who  single-handed  has  given  to 
the  world  a  far  better  Dictionary  than  that  upon 
which  the  Academy  has  bestowed  the  labor  of  more 
than  two  hundred  years,  shows  a  much  juster  appre- 
ciation of  the  actual  facts  of  language.  If  ever  there 
was  a  word  born  in  the  streets,  and  bearing  about  it 
tokens  of  the  place  of  its  birth,  it  is  '  gamin '  ;  more- 
over it  cannot  be  traced  farther  back  than  the  year 
1835  ;  then  first  it  appeared  in  a  book,  though  it 
may  have  lived  some  while  before  on  the  lips  of  the 
people  ;  but  already  he  has  found  room  for  it  in  the 
pages  of  his  Dictionary  ;  so  also  for  *  flaneur,'  and 
for  *  rococo,*  with  many  more,  having  the  same 
marks  on  them  of  a  popular  origin  as  have  these. 
And  with  good  right  ;  for  though  fashions  may  de- 
scend from  the  upper  classes  to  the  lower,  words, 
such  I  mean  as  constitute  the  most  real  additions  to 
the  wealth  of  a  language,  ascend  from  the  lower  to 
the  higher ;  and  of  these  not  a  few,  let  the  fastidious 
oppose  or  ignore  them  for  awhile  as  they  may,  will 
assert  a  place  for  themselves  therein,  from  which  they 
will  not  be  driven  by  the  protests  of  all  the  scholars 
and  all  the  academicians  in  the  world.  If  the  world 
moves,  language  has  no  choice  but  to  move  with  it.* 

these  words,  where  with  the  epigrammatic  neatness  which  so  often 
marks  French  prose  he  says,  Je  regrette  que  1' Academic  repousse  de  son 
Dictionnaire  les  mots  blague^  hlagueur,  laissant  gronder  ^  sa  porte  ces 
fils  effrontes  du  peuple,  qui  finiront  par  I'enfoncer.  On  the  same  mat- 
ter of  the  futility  of  struggling  against  popular  usage  in  language  Mon- 
taigne has  said,  ♦*  They  that  will  fight  custom  with  grammar  are  fools  ;  " 
end,  we  may  add,  not  less  fools,  as  engaged  in  as  hopeless  a  conflict, 
they  that  will  fight  it  with  dictionary. 

♦  One  has  well  said,  ''The  subject  of  language,  the  instrument,  but 


LATE  BIRTH   OF  NEW  WORDS*  2$ I 

Those  who  make  attempts  to  close  the  door  against 
all  new  comers  are  strangely  forgetful  of  the  steps 
whereby  that  vocabulary  of  the  language,  with  which 
they  are  so  entirely  satisfied  that  they  resent  every 
endeavor  to  enlarge  it,  had  itself  been  gotten  to- 
gether— namely  by  that  very  process  which  they 
are  now  seeking  by  an  arbitrary  decree  to  arrest. 
We  so  take  for  granted  that  words  with  which  we 
have  been  always  familiar,  whose  right  to  a  place  in 
the  language  no' one  dreams  now  of  challenging  or 
disputing,  have  always  formed  part  of  it,  that  it  is 
oftentimes  a  surprise  to  discover  of  how  very  late  in- 
troduction many  of  these  actually  are  ;  what  an 
amount,  it  may  be,  of  remonstrance  and  resistance 
some  of  them  encountered  at  the  first.  To  take  two 
or    three    Latin    examples :  Cicero,    in   employing 

also  the  restraint,  of  thought,  is  endless.  The  history  of  language,  the 
mouth  speaking  from  the  fuhiess  of  the  heart,  is  the  history  of  human 
action,  faith,  art,  policy,  government,  virtue,  and  crime.  When  society 
progresses,  the  language  of  the  people  necessarily  runs  even  with  the 
line  of  society.  You  cannot  unite  past  and  present,  still  less  can  you 
bring  back  the  past ;  moreover,  the  law  of  progress  is  the  law  of  storms, 
it  is  impossible  to  inscribe  an  immutable  statute  of  language  on  the 
periphery  of  a  vortex,  whirling  as  it  advances.  Every  political  devel- 
opment induces  a  concurrent  alteration  or  expansion  in  conversation 
and  composition.  New  principles  are  generated,  new  authorities  intro- 
duced ;  new  terms  for  the  purpose  of  explaining  or  concealing  the  con- 
duct of  public  men  must  be  created  ;  new  responsibilities  arise.  The 
evolution  of  new  ideas  renders  the  change  as  easy  as  it  is  irresistible, 
being  a  natural  change  indeed,  like  our  own  voice  under  varying  emo- 
tions or  in  different  periods  of  life  :  the  boy  cannot  speak  like  the  baby, 
nor  the  man  like  the  boy,  the  wooer  speaks  otherwise  than  the  hus- 
band, and  every  alteration  in  circumstances,  fortune  or  misfortune, 
health  or  sickness,  prosperity  or  adversity,  produces  some  correspond- 
ing change  of  speech  or  inflection  of  tone." 


252  ON  THE   RISE   OF  NEW   WORDS. 

*  favor,'  a  word  in  a  little  while  after  used  by  every- 
body, does  it  with  an  apology,  evidently  feels  that  he 
is  introducing  a  questionable  novelty ;  '  urbanus,' 
too,  in  our  sense  of  urbane,  had  in  his  time  only  just 
come  up  :  '  obsequium  '  he  believes  Terence  to  have 
been  the  first  to  employ.*  '  Soliloquium  *  seems  to 
us   so    natural,    indeed    so   necessary,    a  word,    this 

*  soliloquy,'  or  talking  of  a  man  with  himself  alone, 
something  which  would  so  inevitably  demand  and 
obtain  its  adequate  expression,  that  we  learn  with 
surprise  that  no  one  spoke  of  a  '  soliloquy '  before 
Augustine  ;  the  word  having  been  coined,  as  he  dis- 
tinctly informs  us,  by  himself. t 

When  a  word  has  proved  an  unquestionable  gain, 
it  is  interesting  to  watch  it  as  it  first  comes  forth, 
timid,  and  doubtful  of  the  reception  it  will  meet  with  ; 
and  the  interest  is  much  enhanced  if  it  thus  come 
forth  on  some  memorable  occasion,  or  from  some 
memorable  man.  Both  these  interests  meet  in  the 
word  *  essay.'  If  it  were  demanded  what  is  the  most 
remarkable  volume  of  essays  which  the  world  has 
seen,  few,  having  sufficient  oversight  of  the  field  of 
literature  to  be  capable  of  replying,  would  fail  to 
answer,  Lord  Bacon's.  But  they  were  also  the  first 
collection  of  these,  which  bore  that  name  ;  for  we 
gather  from  the  following  passage  in  the  (intended) 
dedication  of  the  volume  to  Prince  Henry,  that 
'  essay '  was  itself  a  recent  word  in  the  language,  and 
in  the  use  to  which  he  put  it,  perfectly  novel  :  he 
says — "To  write  just  treatises   requireth   leisure  in 

♦  On  the  new  words  in  classical  Latin,  see  Quintilian,  Inst,  viil 
3-  30-37-  t  So/$/.  2.  7. 


PHILOSOPHER,  RATIONALIST.  2^^ 

the  writer,  and  leisure  in  the  reader ;  .  .  which  is  the 
cause  which  hath  made  me  choose  to  write  certain 
brief  notes  set  down  rather  significantly  than  curi- 
ously, which  I  have  called  Essays.  The  word  is  late, 
but  the  thing  is  ancient."  From  this  dedication  we 
gather  that,  little  as  '  essays  '  now  can  be  considered 
a  word  of  modesty,  deprecating  too  large  expecta- 
tions on  the  part  of  the  reader,  it  had,  as  '  sketches  ' 
perhaps  would  have  now,  as  *  commentary '  had  in 
the  Latin,  that  intention  in  its  earliest  use.  In  this 
deprecation  of  higher  pretensions  it  resembled  the 
'philosopher'  of  Pythagoras.  Others  had  styled 
themselves,  or  had  been  wilhng  to  be  styled,  "  wise 
men."  ** Lover  of  wisdom,"  a  name  at  once  so 
modest  and  so  beautiful,  was  of  his  devising.* 

But  while  thus  there  are  words  which  surprise  us 
that  they  are  so  new,  others  surprise  us  that  they  are 
so  old.  Few,  I  should  imagine,  are  aware  that  *  ra- 
tionalist,' and  this  in  a  theological  and  not  merely  a 
philosophical  sense,  is  of  such  early  date  as  it  is  ;  or 
that  we  have  not  imported  quite  in  these  later  times 
both  the  name  and  the  thing  from  Germany.  Yet 
this  is  very  far  from  the  case.  There  were  *  ration- 
alists *  in  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth  :  and  these 
challenging  the  name  exactly  on  the  same  grounds  as 
those  who  in  later  times  have  claimed  it  for  their 
own.  Thus,  the  author  of  a  newsletter  from  London, 
of  date  October  14,  1646,  among  other  things  men- 
tions :  *'  There  is  a  new  sect  sprung  up  among  them 
[the  Presbyterians  and  Independents],  and  these  are 

*  Diogenes  Laertius,  Frocem.  §  12. 


254  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

the  Rationalists,  and  what  their  reason  dictates  them 
in  Church  or  State  stands  for  good,  until  they  be  con- 
vinced with  better  ;  "  *  with  more  to  the  same  effect. 
'  Christology '  has  been  lately  characterized  as  a  mon- 
strous importation  from  Germany.  I  am  quite  of  one 
mind  with  the  remonstrant  that  English  theology 
does  not  need,  and  can  do  excellently  well  without 
it ;  yet  this  novelty  it  is  not  ;  for  in  the  Preface  to 
the  works  of  that  illustrious  Arminian  divine  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  Thomas  Jackson,  written  by 
Benjamin  Oley,  his  friend  and  pupil,  the  following 
passage  occurs  :  **  The  reader  will  find  in  this  author 
an  eminent  excellence  in  that  part  of  divinity  which 
I  make  bold  to  call  Christology y  in  displaying  the 
great  mystery  of  godliness,  God  the  Son  manifested 
in  human  flesh."  t 

In  their  power  of  taking  up  foreign  words  into 
healthy  circulation  and  making  them  truly  their  own, 
languages  differ  much  from  one  another,  and  the 
same  language  from  itself  at  different  periods  of  its 
life.  There  are  languages  of  which  the  appetite  and 
digestive  power,  the  assimilative  energy,  is  at  some 
periods  almost  unlimited.  Nothing  is  too  hard  for 
them  ;  everything  turns  to  good  with  them  ;  they 
will  shape  and  mould  to  their  own  uses  and  habits 
almost  any  material  offered  to  them.  This,  however, 
is  in  their  youth  ;  as  age  advances,  the  assimilative 
energy  diminishes.  Words  are  still  adopted  ;  for 
this  process  of  adoption  can  never  wholly  cease  ;  but 

*  Clarendon  State  Papers,  vol.  ii.  p.  40  of  the  Appendix. 
\  Preface  to  Dr.  Jackson^ s  Works ^  vol.  i.  p.  xxvii.     A  work  of  Flem- 
ing's published  in  1700,  bears  the  title,  Christology, 


NATURALIZATION   OF  WORDS:  2$$ 

a  chemical  amalgamation  of  the  new  with  the  old  does 
not  any  longer  find  place ;  or  only  in  some  instances, 
and  very  partially  even  in  them.  They  lie  upon  the 
surface  of  the  language  ;  their  sharp  corners  are  not 
worn  or  rounded  off;  they  remain  foreign  still  in 
their  aspect  and  outline,  and,  having  missed  their 
opportunity  of  becoming  otherwise,  will  remain  so  to 
the  end.  Those  who  adopt,  as  with  an  inward  mis- 
giving about  their  own  gift  and  power  of  stamping 
them  afresh,  make  a  conscience  of  keeping  them  in 
exactly  the  same  form  in  which  they  have  received 
them  ;  instead  of  conforming  them  to  the  laws  of  that 
new  community  into  which  they  are  now  received. 
Nothing  will  illustrate  this  so  well  as  a  comparison  of 
different  words  of  the  same  family,  which  have  at 
different  periods  been  introduced  into  our  language. 
We  shall  find  that  those  of  an  earlier  introduction 
have  become  Enghsh  through  and  through,  while  the 
later  introduced,  belonging  to  the  same  group,  have 
been  very  far  from  undergoing  the  same  transform- 
ing process.  Thus  '  bishop,'  a  word  as  old  as  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  into  England,  though  not 
hiding  its  descent  from  *  episcopus,'  is  thoroughly 
English ;  while  *  episcopal,'  which  has  supplanted 
'  bishoply,'  is  only  a  Latin  word  in  an  Enghsh  dress. 
*  Alms,'  too,  is  genuine  Enghsh,  and  English  which 
has  descended  to  us  from  far  ;  the  very  shape  in 
which  we  have  the  word,  one  syllable  for  '  elee- 
mosyna  '  of  six,  sufftciently  testifying  this  ;  ''letters," 
as  Home  Tooke  observes,  "  like  soldiers,  being  apt 
to  desert  and  drop  off  in  a  long  march."  The  seven- 
syllabled  and  awkward  *  eleemosynary '  is  of  far  more 


256  ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW  WORDS. 

recent  date.  Or  sometimes  this  comparison  is  still 
more  striking,  when  it  is  not  merely  words  of  the 
same  family,  but  the  very  same  word  which  has  been 
twice  adopted,  at  an  earlier  period  and  a  later — the 
earlier  form  will  be  truly  English,  as  '  palsy ' ;  the 
later  will  be  only  a  Greek  or  Latin  word  spelt  with 
English  letters,  as  *  paralysis.'     '  Dropsy,*  *  quinsy,' 

*  megrim,'  *  squirrel,'    *  rickets,'   *  surgeon,'    *  tansy,' 

*  dittany,'  *  daffodil,'  and  many  more  words  that  one 
might  name,  have  nothing  of  strangers  or  foreigners 
about  them,  have  made  themselves  quite  at  home  in 
English.  So  entirely  is  their  physiognomy  native, 
that  it  would  be  difficult  even  to  suspect  them  to  be 
of  Greek  descent,  as  they  all  are.  Nor  has  '  kick- 
shaws '  anything  about  it  now  which  would  compel 
us  at  once  to  recognize  in  it  the  French  *  quelques 
choses'  * — *  French  kickshose,'  as  with  allusion  to  the 
quarter  from  which  it  came,  and  while  the  memory 
of  that  was  yet  fresh  in  men's  minds,  it  was  often 
called  by  our  early  writers. 

A  very  notable  fact  about  new  words,  and  a  very 
signal  testimony  of  their  popular  origin,  of  their 
birth  from  the  bosom  of  the  people,  is  the  difficulty 
which  is  so  often  found  in  tracing  their  pedigree. 
When  the  caiiscB  vocum  are  sought,  as  they  very  fitly 
are,  and  out  of  much  better  than  mere  curiosity,  for 
the  catiscB  rertim  are  very  often  wrapt  up  in  them, 
those  continually  elude  our  research.  Nor  does  it 
fare  thus  merely  with  words  to  which  attention  was 

*  "  These  cooks  have  persuaded  us  their  coarse  fare  is  the  best,  and 
all  other  but  what  they  dress  to  be  mere  quelques  choses^  made  dislies 
of  no  nourishing  "  ( Whitlock,  Zootomia^  p.  147). 


FORGOTTEN  DERIVATIONS.  25/ 

called,  and  interest  about  their  etymology  awakened, 
only  after  they  had  been  long  in  popular  use — foi 
that  such  should  often  give  scope  to  idle  guesses, 
should  altogether  refuse  to  give  up  their  secret,  is 
nothing  strange — but  they  will  not  seldom  perplex 
and  baffle  even  where  an  investigation  of  their  origin 
has  been  undertaken  almost  as  soon  as  they  have 
come  into  existence.  Their  rise  is  mysterious  ;  like 
almost  all  acts  of  becoming,  it  is  veiled  in  deepest 
obscurity.  They  emerge,  they  are  in  everybody's 
mouth  ;  but  when  it  is  enquired  from  whence  they 
are,  nobody  can  tell.  They  are  but  of  yesterday, 
and  yet  with  inexplicable  rapidity  they  have  already 
lost  all  traces  of  the  precise  circumstances  under 
which  they  were  born. 

The  rapidity  with  which  this  comes  to  pass  Is 
nowhere  more  striking  than  in  the  names  of  political 
or  religious  parties,  and  above  all  in  names  of  slight 
or  of  contempt.  Thus  Baxter  tells  us  that  when  he 
wrote  there  already  existed  two  explanations  of 
*  Roundhead,'"^  a  word  not  nearly  so  old  as  himself. 
How  much  has  been  written  about  the  origin  of  the 
German  '  ketzer,'  or  heretic,  which  is  still  in  debate, 
though  there  can  scarcely  be  a  doubt  that  we  have 
the  Cathari  here  ;  while  at  the  same  time  '  katze,'  the 
devil  under  the  shape  of  a  cat,  whom  the  heretics 
were  reported  in  their  secret  assemblies  to  worship, 

*  Narrative  of  my  Life  and  Times,  p.  34:  "The  original  of  which 
name  is  not  certainly  known.  Some  say  it  was  because  the  Puritans 
then  commonly  wore  short  hair,  and  the  King's  party  long  hair  ;  some 
say,  it  was  because  the  Queen  at  Strafford's  trial  asked  who  that  round- 
headed  mzxi  was,  meaning  Mr.  Pym,  because  he  spake  so  strongly." 


258  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

probably  makes  itself  felt  in  the  word.  Hardly  less 
has  been  disputed  about  the  French  '  cagot,'  which 
however   is   pretty   certainly    *  ^^nis,'    or    Provencal 

*  ca,,'  and  *  G<?/hicus/  this  virtually  excommunicated 
race  being  a  real  or  supposed  remnant  among  the 
Pyrenees  of  the  refugee  Gothic  population  of  Spain. 
Is  'Lollard,'  or  *  Loller'  as  we  read  it  in  Chaucer, 
from  *  lollen,'  to  chant?  that  is,  does  it  mean  the 
chanting  or  canting  people  ?  or  had  the  Lollards 
their  title  from  a  principal  person  among  them  of  this 
name,  who  suffered  at  the  stake  ? — to  say  nothing  of 

*  loHum,'  which  some  have  found  in  the  name,  these 
men  being  as  tares  among  the  wholesome  wheat.* 
The  origin  of '  Huguenot,'  as  applied  to  the  French 
Protestants,  was  already  a  matter  of  doubt  and  dis- 
cussion in  the  lifetime  of  those  who  first  bore  it.  A 
distinguished  German  scholar  has  lately  enumerated 
fifteen  explanations  which  have  been  offered  of  the 
word.t  Had  the  '  Beguines '  their  name  from  a  S. 
Begge,  foundress  of  a  religious  corporation  which 
afterwards  went  by  her  name,  or  did  their  mendicant 
character  express  itself  in  this  name  which  they  bore  ? 
Were  the  '  Waldenses  '  so  called  from  one  Waldus, 
to  whom  these  **  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,"  as  they  were 
at  first  called,  owed  their  origin  ?  or  should  the  word 
be  more  properly  '  Vallenses,'  the  men  of  the  Alpine 
valleys,  the  Dalesmen  ?  Of  these  alternatives  the 
former  appears  to  me  as  very  certainly  the  right  one  ; 
but  it  is  by  no  means  so  accepted  by  all.     As  little 


*  Hahn,  Ketzer  im  Mittelaltet-^  vol.  iL  p.  534. 
f  Mahn,  Etymol,  Untersuch.  p.  92. 


DERIVATIONS   OF  FAMILIAR  TERMS.  259 

can  any  one  tell  us  with  any  certainty  why  the 
*  Paulicians  '  or  the  '  Paterines  '  were  severally  named 
as  they  are  ;  or,  to  go  a  good  deal  further  back,  why 
the  *  Essenes,'  were  so  called.*  From  whence  had 
Johannes  Scotus,  who  anticipated  so  much  of  the  pro- 
foundest  thinking  of  latter  ages,  his  title  of  '  Erigena,' 
and  what  did  it  mean  ?  t  Or  take  some  other  Church 
matters.  How  perplexing  are  many  of  her  most 
familiar  terms  and  terms  the  oftenest  in  her  mouth, 
her  *  Ember  *  days  ;  her  '  Collects  ' ;  |  her  '  Breviary  '  ; 
her  *  Whitsunday '  :  §  the  derivation  of  *  Mass '  itself 
not  being  lifted  above  all  question.  ||  As  little  can 
any  one  inform  us  why  the  Roman  military  standard 
on  which  Constantine  inscribed  the  symbols  of  the 
Christian  faith  should  have  been  called  *  Labarum.' 
And  yet  the  enquiry  began  early.  A  father  of  the 
Greek  Church,  almost  a  contemporary  of  Constan. 
tine,  can  do  no  better  than  suggest  that  *  labarum '  is 
equivalent  to  *  laborum,'  and  that  it  was  so  called  be- 
cause  in   that   victorious    standard  was    the   end  of 

*  See  Lightfoot,  On  the  Coiossians,  p.  114  sqq, 

f  Ueberweg,  Gesch.  d.  Philosophie^  vol.  ii,  p.  105. 

\  See  Freeman,  Principles  of  Divine  Service^  vol.  i,  p.  145. 

§  The  medieval  derivation  was  different  from  that  which  is  generally 
current  now,  and  has  more  to  recommend  it.  Thus  an  early  English 
poet : — 

*'  This  day  fF/Vsonday  is  cald, 
For  wisdom  and  wit  sevenfold 
Was  goven  to  the  apostles  on  this  day ; 
For  wise  in  alle  thingis  wer  they  ; 
To  speke  with-outen  mannes  lore 
Maner  langage  everi  wher." 

5  See  Sci'damore,  Notitia  Eucharistica^  p.  2. 


260  ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW  WORDS. 

lador  and  toil  (finis  laborum)  !  *  The  'ciborium* 
of  the  early  Church  is  an  equal  perplexity  ;  t  and 
*  chapel '  (capella)  not  less.  All  recent  investigations 
have  failed  to  dissipate  the  mystery  of  the  *  Sangraal/ 

And  not  in  these  Church  matters  only,  but  every- 
where, we  meet  with  the  same  oblivion  of  the  origin 
of  words.  The  Romans,  one  might  beforehand  have 
assumed,  could  have  no  doubt  why  they  called  them- 
selves '  Quirites,'  but  it  is  manifest  that  they  had 
much  doubt.  They  could  give,  one  would  think,  an 
explanation  of  their  naming  an  outlying  conquered 
region  a  *  province.'  Unfortunately  they  offer  half 
a  dozen  explanations,  among  which  we  may  make  our 
choice.  *  Germans  '  and  *  Germany  '  were  names 
comparatively  recent  when  Tacitus  wrote  ;  but  he 
owns  that  he  has  nothing  trustworthy  to  say  of  their 
history ;  |  later  enquirers  have  as  little.  <^ 

In  the  middle  ages  we  do  not  fare  better.  The 
derivation  of  words  which  are  the  very  key  to  the 
understanding  of  those  ages,  is  very  often  itself  wrapt 
in  obscurity.  About  '  fief  and  '  feudal '  how  much 
has  been  disputed.  ||  *  Morganatic '  marriages  are 
recognized  by  the  public  law  of  Germany,  but  the 
etymology  of  *  morganatic  '  is  unsettled  still.  The 
Gypsies  in  German  are  ^  Zigeuner'  ;  but  when  this  is 


*  Mahn,  Eiym.  Untersuch.  p.  65 ;  cf.  Kurtz,  Kirchengeschichte, 
3rd  edit.  p.  115. 

f  The  word  is  first  met  in  Chrysostom,  who  calls  the  silver  models  of 
the  temple  at  Ephesus  (Acts  xix.  24)  ^inKph.  Kifiwpia. 

X  Germania,  2. 

%  See  Pott,  jEtym.  Forsch.  vol.  ii.  pt.  2,  pp.  860-872. 

\  See  Stubbs,  Constitutional  History  of  En^land^  vol  i.  p.  251. 


JEOPARDIES   OF  WORDS.  26 1 

resolved  into  *  zieh-gauner/  or  roaming  thieves,  the 
explanation  has  about  as  much  scientific  value  as  the 
not  less  ingenious  explanation  of  *  Saturnus '  as  satur 
annis,*  of  *  severitas  '  as  saeva  Veritas  (Agustine)  ;  of 
*  cadaver '  as  composed  of  the  first  syllables  of  caro 
data,  z/^/'mibus.  Littre  does  not  adduce  with  any 
confidence  the  explanation  commonly  offered  to  us 
of  the  *  Salic  '  law,  namely,  that  it  was  the  law  which 
prevailed  on  the  banks  of  the  Saal. 

And  the  modern  world  has  unsolved  riddles  innu- 
merable of  the  same  kind.  Why  was  '  Canada '  so 
called  ?  Is  '  Hottentot  '  an  African  word  or  a  Dutch  ; 
and  which,  if  any,  of  the  explanations  of  it  should  be 
preferred  ?t  Shall  we  accept  Humboldt's  derivation 
of  '  cannibal,'  and  find  both  *  Carib  '  and  *  canis  '  in 
it  ?  Whence  did  the  '  Chouans,'  the  insurgent  royal- 
ists of  Brittany,  obtain  their  name  ?  Questions  such 
as  these  might  be  multiplied  without  end. 

But  consider  now  one  or  two  words  which  have  ^0^ 
lost  the  secret  of  their  origin,  and  note  how  easily 
they  might  do  this,  and  having  once  lost,  how  un- 
likely it  is  that  any  searching  would  ever  recover  it. 
Burton  tells  us  that  the  coarse  cloth  which  is  the 
medium  of  exchange,  in  fact  the  money  of  Eastern 
Africa,  is  called  '  merkani.'  The  word  is  a  native 
corruption  of  '  American,'  the  cloth  being  manufac- 
tured in  America  and  sold  under  this  name.  But 
suppose  a  change  should  take  place  in  the  country 
from  which  this  cloth  was  brought,  and  that  little  by 


*  Cicero,  JVaH.  Deor.  \\.  25. 

f  See  Transactions  of  the  Philological  Society^  1866,  pp.  6-25. 


262  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

little  it  was  forgotten  that  it  ever  had  been  imported 
from  America,  who  would  then  divine  the  secret  of 
the  word  ?  Or,  again,  if  the  tradition  of  the  etymol- 
ogy of  *  paraffin  '  were  once  let  go,  it  would,  I  imag- 
ine, never  again  be  recovered.  No  mere  ingenuity 
would  scarcely  divine  the  fact  that  a  certain  oil  was 
so  named  because  *  parum  affinis,'  having  little  affinity 
which  chemistry  could  detect,  with  any  other  sub- 
stance. So,  too,  the  derivation  of  *  licorice,*  once 
lost,  would  scarcely  be  recovered.  It  would  exist,  at 
the  best,  but  as  one  guess  among  many. 

Those  which  I  cite  are  but  a  handful  of  examples 
of  the  way  in  which  words  forget,  or  under  predis- 
posing conditions  might  forget,  the  circumstances  of 
their  birth.  Now  if  we  could  believe  in  any  merely 
arbitrary  words  standing  in  connection  with  nothing 
but  the  mere  lawless  caprice  of  some  inventor,  the 
impossibility  of  tracing  their  derivation  would  be 
nothing  strange.  Indeed  it  would  be  lost  labor  to 
seek  for  the  parentage  of  all  words,  when  many  pro- 
bably had  none.  But  there  is  no  such  thing ;  there 
is  no  word  which  is  not,  as  the  Spanish  gentleman 
loves  to  call  himself,  an  '  hidalgo  '  or  son  of  some- 
thing ;  if  indeed  this  explanation  of  '  hidalgo  '  may 
stand.  All  arc  embodiments,  more  or  less  success- 
ful, of  a  sensation,  a  thought,  or  a  fact ;  or  if  of  more 
fortuitous  birth,  still  they  attach  themselves  some- 
where to  the  already  subsisting  world  of  words  and 
things,*  and  have  their  point  of  contact  with  it  and 

*  J.  Grimm,  in  an  interesting  review  of  a  little  volume  dealing  with 
what  the  Spaniards  call  *  Germania,'  the  French  •  argot,'  and  we 
*  Thieves'  Language,'  finds  in  this  language  the  most  decisive  evidence 


PARENTAGE   OF   WORDS.  263 

departure  from  it,  not  always  discoverable,  as  we  see, 
but  yet  always  existing.*  And  thus,  when  a  word 
entirely  refuses  to  tell  us  anything  about  itself,  it 
must  be  regarded  as  a  riddle  which  no  one  has  suc- 
ceeded in  solving,  a  lock  of  which  no  man  has  found 
the  key — but  still  a  riddle  which  has  a  solution,  a 
lock  for  which  there  is  a  key,  though  now,  it  may  be, 
irrecoverably  lost.  And  this  difficulty — it  is  often- 
times an  impossibility — of  tracing  the  genealogy  even 
of  words  of  a  very  recent  formation,  is,  as  I  observed, 
an  evidence  of  the  birth  of  the  most  notable  of  these 
out  of  the  heart  and  from  the  lips  of  the  people. 
Had  they  first  appeared  in  books,  something  in  the 
context  would  most  probably  explain  them.  Had 
they  issued  from  the  schools  of  the  learned,  these 
would  not  have  failed  to  leave  a  recognizable  stamp 
and  mark  upon  them. 


of  this  fact  {Klein.  Schrift.  vol.  iv,  p.  165) :  Der  nothwendige  Zusam- 
menliang  aller  Sprache  mit  Ueberlieferung  zeigt  sich  auch  hier  ;  kaum 
ein  Wort  dieser  Gaunermundart  scheint  leer  erfunden,  und  Menschen 
eines  Gelichters,  das  sich  sonst  kein  Gewissen  aus  Liigen  macht,  bescha- 
men  manchen  Sprachphilosophen,  der  von  Erdichtung  einer  allgemeinen 
Sprache  getraumet  hat.  Van  Helmont  indeed,  a  sort  of  modern  Para- 
celsus, is  said  to  have  invented  '  gas  '  ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  think  that 
there  was  not  a  feeling  here  after 'geest'  or  '  geist,'  whether  he  was 
conscious  of  this  or  not. 

*  Some  will  remember  here  the  old  Greek  dispute,  whether  words 
were  imposed  on  thmgs  eeVet  or  ^vcr^iy  by  arbitrary  arrangement  or  by 
nature.  We  may  boldly  say  with  Bacon,  Vestigia  certe  rationis  verba 
sunt,  and  decide  in  favor  of  nature.  If  only  they  knew  their  own  his- 
tory, they  could  always  explain,  and  in  most  cases  justify,  their  exis- 
tence. See  some  excellent  remarks  on  this  subject  by  Renan,  De 
rOrigine  du  Langage,  pp.  146-149;  and  an  admirable  article  on 
*  Slang '  in  the  Times,  Oct.  18,  1864. 


264  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

There  is,  indeed,  another  way  in  which  obscurity 
may  rest  on  a  new  word,  or  a  word  employed  in  a 
new  sense  ;  so  that,  while  it  offers  no  difficulty  at  all 
in  its  etymology,  it  may  for  all  this  offer  difficulties 
in  the  application  of  that  etymology  almost  or  quite 
impossible  to  solve.  It  may  tell  the  story  of  its 
birth,  of  the  word  or  words  which  compose  it,  may 
so  bear  these  on  its  front,  that  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion here,  and  yet  its  purpose  and  intention  may  be 
hopelessly  hidden  from  our  eyes.  The  secret  once 
lost,  is  not  again  to  be  recovered.  Thus  no  one  has 
called,  or  could  call,  in  question  the  derivation  of 
*  apocryphal,*  that  it  means  *  hidden  away.'  When, 
however,  we  begin  to  enquire  why  certain  books 
which  the  Church  either  set  below  the  canonical 
Scriptures,  or  rejected  altogether,  were  called  '  apo- 
cryphal,' then  a  long  and  doubtful  discussion  com- 
mences. Was  it  because  their  origin  was  hidden  to 
the  early  Fathers  of  the  Church,  and  thus  reasonable 
suspicions  of  their  authenticity  entertained  ?  *  or  be- 
cause they  were  mysteriously  kept  out  of  sight  and 
hidden  by  the  heretical  sects  which  boasted  them- 
selves in  their  exclusive  possession?  or  was  it  that 
they  were  books  not  laid  up  in  the  Church  chest,  but 
hidden  away  in  obscure  corners  ?  or  were  they  books 
worthier  to  be  hidden  than  to  be  brought  forward 
and  read  to  the  faithful  ? — for  all  these  explanations 
have  been  offered,  and  none  with  such  superiority  of 
proof  on  its  side  as  to  have  deprived  the  others  of  all 

♦  Augustine  (/?<•  Civ.  Deiy  15.  23)  :  Apocrypha  nuncupantur  eo 
quod  eorum  occulta  origo  non  claruit  Patribus."  Cf.  Con.  Faust,  11. 
2. 


TRAGEDY,  LEONINE.  2^5 

right  to  be  heard.  In  the  same  way  there  is  no 
question  that  *  tragedy '  is  the  song  of  the  goat ;  but 
why  this,  whether  because  a  goat  was  the  prize  for 
the  best  performers  of  that  song  in  which  the  germs 
of  Greek  tragedy  lay ;  or  because  the  first  actors 
were  dressed  hke  satyrs  in  goatskins,  is  a  question 
which  will  now  remain  unsettled  to  the  end."^  You 
know  what  leonine  verses  are  ;  or,  if  you  do  not,  it 
is  very  easy  to  explain.  They  are  Latin  hexameters 
into  which  an  inner  rhyme  has  forced  its  way.  The 
following,  for  example,  are  *  leonine  '  : 

Qui  pingit  fiorem  non  pingit  floris  odor  em  : 

Si  quis  det  rnaitnos,  ne  quaere  in,  dentibus  aiinos. 

The  word  has  plainly  to  do  with  *  leo  *  in  some  shape 
or  other ;  but  are  these  verses  so  called  from  one 
Leo  or  Leolinus,  who  first  composed  them  ?  or  be- 
cause, as  the  lion  is  king  of  beasts,  so  this,  in  monk- 
ish estimation,  was  the  king  of  metres  ?  or  from  some 
other  cause  which  none  have  so  much  as  guessed  at  ?  t 
It  is  a  mystery  which  none  has  solved.  That  fright- 
ful system  of  fagging  which  made  in  the  seventeenth 
century  the  German  Universities  a  sort  of  hell  upon 
earth,  :j:  and  which  was  known  by  the  name  of  '  pen- 
nalism,'  we  can  scarcely  disconnect  from  *  penna '  ; 
while  yet  this  does  not  help  us  to  any  effectual  scat- 
tering of  the  mystery  which  rests  upon  the  term. 
The  connexion  of  *  dictator  '  with  *  dicere,''  dictare,' 
is  manifest ;  not  so  the  reason  why  the  dictator  ob- 

*  See  Bentley,  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  337. 
f  See  my  Sacred  Latin  Poetry,  3d  edit.  p.  32. 
X  See  my  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  Germany,  p.  131. 
12 


266  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

tained  his  name.  '  Sycophant '  and  *  superstition  * 
are  words,  one  Greek  and  one  Latin,  of  the  same 
character.  No  one  can  doubt  of  what  elements  they 
are  composed,  and  yet  their  secret  has  been  so  lost, 
that,  except  as  a  more  or  less  plausible  guess,  it  can 
never  now  be  regained.* 

But  I  must  conclude.  I  may  seem  in  this  present 
lecture  a  little  to  have  outrun  your  needs,  and  to 
have  sometimes  moved  in  a  sphere  too  remote  from 
that  in  which  your  future  work  will  lie.  And  yet  it 
is  in  truth  very  difficult  to  affirm  of  any  words,  that 
they  do  not  touch  us,  do  not  in  some  way  bear  upon 
our  studies,  on  that  which  we  shall  hereafter  have  to 
teach,  or  shall  desire  to  learn  ;  that  there  are  any 
conquests  which  language  makes  that  concern  only  a 
select  few,  and  may  be  regarded  indiffi^rently  by  all 
others.  For  it  is  here  as  with  many  inventions  in 
the  arts  and  luxuries  of  life  ;  which,  being  at  the  first 
the  exclusive  privilege  and  possession  of  the  wealthy 
and  refined,  gradually  descend  into  lower  strata  of 
society,  until  at  length  what  were  once  the  elegancies 
and  luxuries  of  a  few,  have  become  the  decencies, 
well-nigh  the  necessities,  of  all.  Not  otherwise  there 
are  words,  once  only  on  the  lips  of  philosophers  or 
theologians,  of  the  deeper  thinkers  of  their  time,  or 
of  those  directly  interested  in  their  speculations, 
which  step  by  step  have  come  down,  not  debasing 
themselves  in  this  act  of  becoming  popular,  but  train- 
ing and  elevating  an  ever-increasing  number  to  enter 


*  For  a  good  recapitulation  of  all  which  has  been  written  on  *  super- 
stitio,'  see  Pott,  Etytn,  Forschiingcn^  2ud  ed.  vol  ii.  p.  921. 


LANGUAGE  THE  NUTRIMENT   OF  THOUGHT.    26/ 

into  their  meaning,  till  at  length  they  have  become 
truly  a  part  of  the  nation's  common  stock,  **  house- 
hold words,"  used  easily  and  intelligently  by  all. 

I  cannot  better  conclude  this  lecture  than  by  quot- 
ing a  passage,  one  among  many,  which  expresses 
with  a  rare  eloquence  all  I  have  been  laboring  to 
utter ;  for  this  truth,  which  many  have  noticed, 
hardly  any  has  set  forth  with  the  same  fulness  of 
illustration,  or  the  same  sense  of  its  importance,  as 
the  author  of  The  Philosophy  of  the  Inductive 
Sciences.  *'  Language,"  he  observes,  *'  is  often 
called  an  instrument  of  thought,  but  it  is  also  the 
nutriment  of  thought  ;  or  rather,  it  is  the  atmosphere 
in  which  thought  lives  ;  a  medium  essential  to  the 
activity  of  our  speculative  powers,  although  invisible 
and  imperceptible  in  its  operation  ;  and  an  element 
modifying,  by  its  qualities  and  changes,  the  growth 
and  complexion  of  the  faculties  which  it  feeds.  In 
this  way  the  influence  of  preceding  discoveries  upon 
subsequent  ones,  of  the  past  upon  the  present,  is 
most  penetrating  and  universal,  although  most  subtle 
and  difficult  to  trace.  The  most  familiar  words  and 
phrases  are  connected  by  imperceptible  ties  with  the 
reasonings  and  discoveries  of  former  men  and  distant 
times.  Their  knowledge  is  an  inseparable  part  of 
ours  :  the  present  generation  inherits  and  uses  the 
scientific  wealth  of  all  the  past.  And  this  is  the 
fortune,  not  only  of  the  great  and  rich  in  the  intel- 
lectual world,  of  those  who  have  the  key  to  the 
ancient  storehouses,  and  who  have  accumlilated 
treasures  of  their  own,  but  the  humblest  enquirer, 
while  he  puts  his  reasonings  into  words,  benefits  by 


268  ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW  WORDS. 

the  labors  of  the  greatest.  When  he  counts  his  little 
wealth,  he  finds  he  has  in  his  hands  coins  which  bear 
the  image  and  superscription  of  ancient  and  modern 
intellectual  dynasties,  and  that  in  virtue  of  this  pos- 
session acquisitions  are  in  his  power,  solid  knowledge 
within  his  reach,  which  none  could  ever  have  attained 
to,  if  it  were  not  that  the  gold  of  truth  once  dug  out 
of  the  mine  circulates  more  and  more  widely  among 
mankind." 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES. 

LECTURE  V. 
ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 


EXERCISE   No.  I. 

APPEARANCE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

I.  Interesting  and  instructive. 

II.  Necessary  caution. 

1.  Identity  of  first  rise  and  first  appearance. 

2.  Approximate  time  of  appearance. 

3.  Local  habitation. 

III.  Religious  and  ecclesiastical  words. 

I.  "Christian." 
'      2.  "  Trinity." 

3.  "Catholic." 

4.  "  Canonical." 

5.  "  New  Testament." 

6.  "Gospels." 

7.  "Monk"  and  "Nun." 

8.  "  Transubstantiation." 

9.  "Limbo." 

IV.  Historical  and  geographical  names. 

1.  "Asia." 

2.  "India." 

3.  "  Europe." 


270  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW   WORDS. 

4.  "  Macedonia." 

5.  "Greeks." 

6.  "  Germans." 

7.  "  Franks." 

8.  ''  Normans." 

9.  "Italy,"  etc. 

V.  Political  and  scientific. 

1.  "  Tyrant." 

2.  "  Cosmos." 

VI.  Rise  of  "  christian." 

1.  Main  facts. 

2.  Subordinate  facts. 

3.  Lessons. 


EXERCISE    No.  II. 

PHENOMENA  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

I.  Cause:  New  moral  and  spiritual  forces. 

1.  There  are  cardinal  epochs  in  history. 

2.  They  demand  new  words. 

3.  They  expand  old  words. 

II.  Typical  period:  The  christian  era. 

1.  Its  great  novel  truths  required  new  forms. 

2.  It  affectedyfrj^  the  Latin  and  Greek. 

III.  Typical  regions  of  society  :  Greece  and  rome. 

A.  Greece. 

1.  "  Idolatry  "  and  "  Idolater." 

2.  "  Theocracy." 

3.  Word  for  "  Saviour." 

B.  Rome. 

1.  Classical  Latin  had  no  word  for  "  Saviour." 

2.  "  Scrvator  "  insufficient. 

3.  "  Sospitator  "  and  "  Salutificator"  employed. 

4.  "  Salvator  "  employed  by  St.  Augustine. 

5.  "  Infanticidium." 

IV.  Each   new  reception  of  the  word  of  life  is 

similar. 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  27 1 

EXERCISE   No.  III. 
MINTS  IN  WHICH  WORDS  ARE  COINED. 

I.  New  thoughts  demand  new  words. 

1 .  Advance  of  moral  philosophy  in  Greece. 

2.  Rise  of  the  "  scholastic  "  theology. 

3.  Rise  of  the  "  mystic  "  theology. 

4.  Discoveries  of  modern  science. 

II.  Great  movements  bring  new  words. 

1.  Popular. 

2.  Theological. 

3.  Scientific. 

III.  Individuals  coin  new  words. 

1.  ''  Cosmopolite  "  coined  by  Diogenes. 

2.  Words  coined  by  poets. 

IV.  New  necessities  create  new  words. 

1.  Discovery  of  gold. 

2.  Diplomacy. 

3.  Contact  with  the  East. 

4.  Assimilation  in  language. 

5.  Change  of  functions  : 

(a.)  ''Singer"  and  "poet." 
{d.)  "Physician." 

EXERCISE    No.  IV. 
COINAGE  OF  WORDS. 

I.  Wants  detected  by  comparison. 

II.  Wants  supplied  from  other  tongues. 

1.  "  Apathy." 

2.  "  Indolentia." 

III.  Cicero  as  a  mint-master. 

I.  "  Invidentia." 

IV.  Unsuccessful  coinages. 

1.  "  Vitiositas." 

2.  "  Indigentia." 

3.  "  Mulierositas." 


2/2  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

4.  "  Beatitas." 

5.  **  Esemplastic." 

6.  Taylor's,  Browne's,  and  Mere's  words. 


EXERCISE   No.  V. 
COMPREHENSIVE  WORDS. 

I.  Facilitate  mental  processes. 

1 .  By  saving  words. 

2.  By  making  thought  practicable. 
II.  Serve  as  bills  of  exchange. 

1.  Analogy  between  coins  and  words. 

2.  Words  like  bills — much  in  little. 

(a.)  "  Isothermal." 
{d.)  "  Atavism." 
{c.)  "  Papable." 
(d.)  "  Antistrophic." 
{e.)  "  Circle." 

III.  Abridge  labor. 

IV.  Make  further  triumphs  possible. 


EXERCISE    No.  VI. 

CAUSES  OF  THE  BIRTH  OF  WORDS. 

I.  Novel  objects  demand  new  names. 

1.  Imported  names  :  *' Potato"  and  " batata." 

2.  Transferred  names. 

{a.)  "  Kartoffel  "  and  "  tartiiffel." 
(d.)  "  Tartufo"  and  "  bianco." 
(c.)  *'  Apple  of  the  earth." 
(d.)  ''Erdappel." 

3.  Superseded  names:  "  Anana"  and  **  pineapple." 

4.  Names  made  from  foreign  phrases  : 

(a.)  "Alligator." 
(*.)  "  Alcoran." 


BLACKBOARD  EXERCISES.  2/3 

(c.)  "Lierre." 
(d.)  "  Lingot." 
(e.)  "Apulia." 
(/.)  ''Nenagh." 
(g.)  "  Oughaval." 
II.  Dishonorable  causes  give  birth  to  words. 

1.  Words  reveal  the  morals  of  an  epoch. 

2.  Testimony  of  Tacitus. 


EXERCISE  No.  VII. 
CONTRIBUTORS  OF  WORDS. 

I.  Lewis  XIV. 

1.  "  Dragonnade." 

2.  "  Refugee." 

3.  "  Convertisseur." 

II.  Duke  of  Orleans'  '*rou^." 

1.  Primary  meaning  :  broken  on  the  wheel. 

2.  One  of  profligate  character. 

III.  French  revolution. 


I.  "  Sans-culotte." 

2.  "  Incivisme." 

3.  "  Terrorisme." 

4.  "Noyade." 

5.  "  Guillotine." 

6.  "  Lanterner." 

IV. 

French  conquest  in  north  africa  : 

"  Razzia. 

V. 

Commune  of  1871  :  "  Petroleuse." 

VL 

English  history. 

1.  "  Mob." 

2.  ''Sham." 

3.  Origin  of  the  verb  "  to  burke." 

4.  Origin  of  the  verb  "  to  ratten." 

vn. 

Comic  contributors. 

1.  Aristophanes. 

2.  Greek  comic  poet. 

12 


274  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

3.  Greek  and  medieval  Latin. 

4.  Plautus,  Chaucer,  Butler,  Fuller,  and  Cowper. 


EXERCISE    NO.  VIII. 
CHARACTERISTICS  OF  WORDS. 

I.  The  growth  of  words. 

1.  Language  has  life. 

2.  Its  growth  cannot  be  checked. 

3.  Attempts  of  the  French  Academy  : 

"  Blague,"  "  blagueur,"  and  **  blaguer.' 
IT.  Street  words. 

1.  "  Gamin." 

2.  "Flaneur." 

3.  "  Rococo." 

III.  The  novelty  of  words. 

1.  "  Favor." 

2.  "  Urbane." 

3.  "  Soliloquy." 

IV.  f  HE  BIRTH   OF   WORDS. 

1.  "Essay." 

2.  "  Philosopher." 
V.  Old  words. 

1.  "  Rationalist." 

2.  "  Christology." 


EXERCISE    No.  IX. 
NATURALIZATION  AND  ORIGIN  OF  WORDS. 

I.  The  adoption  of  words. 

1.  Assimilative  energy  of  language. 

{a.)  Strong  in  its  youth. 
{d.)  Decreases  with  age. 

2.  Method  of  assimilation. 

{a.)  Early  words  amalgamated. 
{d.)  Later  words  lie  on  the  surface. 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  2/5 

3.  Comparisons. 

(a.)  ''  Bishop"  and  "episcopal." 
(d.)  "  Alms  "  and  "  eleemosynary." 
(c.)  "  Palsy"  and  "  paralysis." 

4.  Naturalized  words. 

(«.)  "  Dropsy." 
{b.)  "  Quinsy." 
{c.)  "Megrim." 
{d.)  "  Surgeon." 
(e.)  "Tansy." 
(/.)  "Dittany." 
(g.)  "  Daffodil." 
(>^.)  "  Kickshaws." 
(/.)  "Squirrel." 
(7.)  "  Rickets." 
II.  Popular  origin  of  words. 

1.  Birth  mysterious. 

2.  Origin  soon  obscured. 

{a.)  "Roundhead." 
(b.)  "  Ketzer." 
(c.)  "Cagot." 
(d.)  "Lollard." 
(e.)  "  Huguenot." 
(/.)  "Beguines." 
(jr.)  "  Waldenses." 
{/i.)  "  Paulicians,"  etc. 


EXERCISE    No.  X. 

LOST  DERIVATIONS. 

I.  Scholastic  :  "  Erigena." 
II.  In  church  matters. 

1.  "^  Ember'  days." 

2.  "Collects." 

3.  "  Breviary." 

4.  "  Whitsunday." 


2^6  ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW   WORDS. 

5.  *'Mass." 

6.  ''  Labarum." 

7.  "  Ciborium." 

8.  "Chapel." 

9.  "Sangraal." 

III.  In  national  matters. 

1.  "  Quirites." 

2.  "  Province." 

3.  *^  Germans." 

4.  "  Fief"  and  "  feudal." 

5.  "  Morganatic." 

6.  "Zigeuner." 

7.  "Salic." 

IV.  Modern  riddles. 

1.  "Canada." 

2.  "Hottentot." 

3.  "Cannibal." 

4.  "Chouans.'* 


EXERCISE    No.  XL 
JEOPARDIES  AND  PECULIARITIES  OF  WORDS. 

I.  Words  which  might  easily  lose  the  secret  op 

THEIR  ORIGIN. 

1.  "Merkani." 

2.  "  Paraffin." 

3.  "  Licorice." 

IL  Peculiarities  of  words. 

1.  Not  arbitrary  signs, 

2.  Embodiments  of 

{a.)  Sensation. 
{b.)  Thought. 
{c)  Fact. 

3.  Attached  to  the  already  subsisting  world. 

4.  Difficult  genealogy  proof  of  popular  origin. 

5.  Their  purpose  and  intention  may  be  lost. 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  2^^ 

{a)  ''  Apocryphal." 
{b)  ''Tragedy." 
{c.)  "  Leonine." 
{d.)  "  Pennalism." 
(e.)  "  Dictator." 
(/.)  "  Sycophant." 
(^.)  "  Superstition." 
in.  Conclusion  of  the  lecture. 

1.  "  Household  words." 

2.  Language  the  nutriment  of  thought. 


QUESTIONS. 

LECTURE    V. 
On  the  Rise  of  New  Words. 


How  is  the  rise  of  words  made  interesting  and  instructive  ? 

What  might  be  written  on  this  subject  ? 

With  what  is  the  appearance  of  a  new  word  compared  ? 

What  caution  is  necessary  ? 

What  is  said  of  the  identity  of  the  first  rise  of  a  word  and  its 
appearance  to  us  ? 

What  can  be  said  of  other  words  ? 

What  is  true  of  modern  words  ? 

Give  examples  of  the  rise  of  religious  and  ecclesiastical 
words.  Of  words  belonging  to  the  monastic  system.  Also  of 
words  witnessing  the  consolidation  of  errors  in  the  Church. 
Tell  when  each  appeared. 

Mention  some  historical  and  geographical  terms.  When  did 
they  first  appear  ? 

What  is  said  of  '*  tyrant  "  and  "  tyranny"  ?  "  Cosmos  "  ? 

Where  was  the  name  '*  Christian  "  given  ?  By  whom  was  it 
imposed  ? 

What  is  in  agreement  with  this  view  ? 

How  do  we  know  that  the  Jews  did  not  give  the  name? 

What  was  Antioch  ? 

What  had  the  faithful  been  called  hitherto  ? 

What  was  evident  from  the  name  "  Christians  "  ? 


QUESTIONS.  279 

With  what  is  the  rise  of  the  name  connected  ? 

What  did  the  rise  of  the  name  mark  ? 

What  was  the  reputation  of  the  Antiochenes  in  reference  to 
nicknames  ? 

Wliat  is  the  principal  cause  of  the  birth  of  words  ? 

What  is  the  result  of  such  epochs  ? 

How  is  language  compared  to  a  river  ? 

What  did  spiritual  truths  demand  of  heathen  tongues  ? 

What  was  the  result  ? 

Illustrate  with  the  word  "  idolatry.'* 

When  did  the  word  appear  ? 

What  is  said  of  the  heathen  deities  ? 

What  is  said  of  the  word  ''  theocracy  "  ? 

Where  did  these  difficulties  reappear  ? 

Give  an  example  of  the  difficulty  and  how  it  was  overcome. 

What  was  the  nature  of  the  Greek  word  for  "saviour"? 
With  what  compared  ? 

What  would  have  been  the  natural  word  in  Latin  ? 

What  was  the  signification  of  "servator"?  Why  insuffi- 
cient ? 

What  two  other  words  were  defective  ? 

Who  disposed  of  the  difficulty  ?     By  what  argument  ? 

What  other  words  do  we  owe  to  the  Christian  Latin  ?  Give 
their  meaning  and  derivation. 

What  is  said  of  infanticidium  ? 

What  does  the  unfolding  of  seminal  truths  require  ? 

What  movements  are  mentioned  as  demanding  extensions 
of  language  ? 

What  is  true  of  some  of  the  words  to  which  these  gave  birth  ? 
What  of  others  ? 

What  is  the  character  of  words  born  of  a  popular  movement  ? 
What  where  it  is  theological,  scientific,  or  philosophical  ? 
What  exceptions  to  this  rule  ?     The  nature  of  the  exceptions  ? 

What  would  we  naturally  infer  in  reference  to '^cosmopo- 
lite "  ?  Who  coined  it  ?  Under  what  circumstances  ?  What 
docs  the  word  suggest  ? 

Who  is  a  word  maker  by  right  of  his  name  ?     Why  does  he 


280  ON  THE  RISE  OF  NEW  WORDS. 

coin  words  ?  In  what  mood  ?  How  does  he  deal  with  old 
words  ?     With  new  ? 

What  is  the  effect  of  new  necessities  on  language  ? 

What  is  said  of  the  discovery  of  gold  ?     Illustrate. 

What  is  said  of  diplomacy  ?     Give  examples. 

How  has  contact  with  the  East  affected  language  ? 

What  is  said  of  "  assimilation"  and  "  dissimilation"  ? 

Give  examples  of  assimilation  by  change  of  letters  ? 

What  is  the  opposite  process  ?  Mention  some  examples  of 
the  exchange  of  letters. 

Mention  some  Italian  and  German  preferences. 

Define  dissimilation. 

What  is  said  of  the  words  "  singer  "  and  "  poet "  ?  "  Phy- 
sician "  ? 

How  are  wants  detected  in  language  ? 

How  are  they  supplied  ? 

What  is  the  advantage  of  acquaintance  with  other  languages  ? 

What  was  found  necessary  in  transplanting  the  Greek  phi- 
losophy in  Italy  ? 

Give  examples. 

What  is  said  of  the  detection  of  the  omission  of  words  by  in- 
dividuals ? 

Give  an  account  of  **  invidentia." 

Why  did  Cicero  coin  it  ? 

Who  invented  *'  vocalitas  "  ? 

What  is  true  of  the  acceptance  of  words  ? 

Mention  some  of  Cicero's  unsuccessful  words.  What  is  the 
history  of  "  beatitude  "  ?  "  esemplastic  "  ? 

What  other  word  coiners  are  mentioned  ?  What  does  Ben 
Jonson  say  about  neologists  ? 

Why  are  comprehensive  words  valuable  ?  How  compared 
with  money  ?  How  likened  to  a  river  ?  How  is  science  bene- 
fited ?  Illustrate  by  "  isothermal"  ;  "  papable  "  ;  **  antistro- 
phic"  ;  "circle." 

What  is  true  of  the  progress  of  nomenclature  ?  Words,  how 
like  tools  ? 

What  is  said  of  novel  objects  of  interest  ? 


QUESTIONS.  281 

Illustrate  with  "  potato."  How  was  it  named  in  German? 
In  Italy  ?  France  ? 

What  is  said  of  two  names  existing  side  by  side  ? 

Illustrate  with  "  pineapple"  and  "anana." 

Give  the  history  of  "alligator";  "alcoran";  "lierre"; 
**  lingot"  ;  "  lendemain  "  ;  ''  La  Pouille  "  ;  "  La  Natolie,"  etc. 

What  other  causes  produce  words  ^ 

What  does  Tacitus  tell  us  ? 

What  gave  birth  to  ''  delator  "  ? 

What  words  were  bequeathed  by  the  "  booted  mission  "  ? 

Give  the  history  of  ''  refugee  "  ;  also,  **  convertisseur." 

Give  an  account  of  "  roue." 

What  words  were  contributed  by  the  French  Revolution  .? 
By  the  French  conquests  in  North  Africa  ?  By  the  Commu- 
nist insurrection  of  187 1  ? 

When  did  ^'  mob  "  have  its  birth  ?  Where  first  used  ?  What 
was  foretold  in  the  Spectator  ? 

To  what  do  we  owe  '^  to  burke  "  and  '•  to  ratten  "  ? 

What  is  said  of  comic  words  and  combinations  ? 

For  what  are  they  invented  ?     What  is  their  destiny  ? 

What  word  was  coined  by  Aristophanes  ? 

In  what  does  the  humor  of  comic  words  sometimes  consist  ? 
Give  examples. 

What  is  said  of  Plautus  ?  Chaucer  ?  Butler  ?  Fuller  ?  Cow- 
per  ? 

What  has  been  tried  by  those  who  do  not  understand  language? 

How  is  Bentley  at  fault  ? 

What  is  the  true  character  of  language  ? 

What  did  the  French  Academy  attempt  to  do  ?  With  what 
result  ? 

What  is  said  of  '^  gamin  "  ?  "  Flaneur  "  ?  ''  Rococo  "  ? 

What  is  the  law  of  language  ? 

Give  the  substance  of  the  note  on  this  topic  ? 

What  is  forgotten  by  those  who  resist  new  words  ? 

What  do  we  take  for  granted,  and  why  ? 

How  did  Cicero  employ  ''  favor"?  ''  Urbanus  "  ? 

Who  first  used  *'  obsequium  "  ? 


282  ON  THE  RISE   OF  NEW  WORDS. 

What  is  said  of  "  soliloquium  "  ? 

What  is  interesting  in  the  reception  of  words  ?  Illustrate 
with  the  word  "  essay."     How  did  it  resemble  *'  philosopher  "  ? 

How  do  words  surprise  us  ?  Illustrate  with  *'  rationalist"  ; 
'^  Christology." 

What  is  said  of  the  assimilation  of  words  ? 

When  are  most  words  adopted  ? 

What  is  true  of  later  adoptions  ? 

What  of  the  form  of  adoption  ?  How  is  this  illustrated  by 
•'  bishop  "  ?  "  Alms  "  ?  In  words  having  two  forms  ?  Of  what 
descent  are  they  ? 

Give  the  derivation  of  "  kickshaws." 

What  is  true  of  the  pedigree  of  words  ? 

When  is  this  true  ?  What  is  said  of  the  rapid  Joss  of  the 
origin  of  words  ?  How  illustrated  by  "  Roundhead  "  ?  "  Kct- 
zer  "  ?  "  Cagot "  ?  "  Lollard  "  ?  "  Huguenot  "  ?  "  Beguines  "  ? 
"  Waldenses  "  ?  By  Church  words  ?  By  "  labarum  "  ?  '*  Ci- 
borium  "  ?  "  Chapel  "  ?  "  Sangraal  "  ? 

What  is  true  of  the  Roman  words  "  Quiritcs  "  and  ''  pro- 
vince "  ?     Of  Germans  "  and  "  Germany  "  ? 

What  examples  are  furnished  by  the  middle  ages  ?  By  the 
modern  world  ? 

Give  examples  of  words  which  might  easily  lose  their  origin. 

Under  what  circumstances  would  difficulty  of  tracing  deriva- 
tions not  be  strange  ? 

How  are  words  like  the  Spanish  gentleman  ? 

Of  what  are  they  the  embodiment  ? 

How  must  we  regard  unsolved  word-problems  ? 

What  is  difficult  genealogy  an  evidence  of?     Why  ? 

What  is  said  of  hidden  purpose  and  intention  in  words  ? 

Illustrate  with  "  apocryphal." 

What  four  different  views  are  held  concerning  this  word  ? 

What  is  true  of  "  tragedy  "  ?  "  Leonine  "  ?  "  Pennalism"  ? 
*'  Dictator"  ?  '*  Sycophant  "  ?  *'  Superstition  "  ? 
•    What  is  affirmed  of  words  and  our  relations  to  them  ?     What 
of  popular  household  words  ? 

Give  the  substance  of  the  quotation  from  Whewell. 


ADDITIONAL  WORDS  FOR  ILLUSTRATION. 


LECTURE  V. 


On  the  Rise  of  New  Words. 


1.  Anecdote. 

2.  Baccalaureate. 

3.  Calumet. 

4.  Czar. 

5.  Carnival. 

6.  Caucus. 

7.  Cockney. 

8.  Coincidence. 

9.  Coroner. 

10.  Farce. 

11.  Hammock. 

12.  Health. 

13.  Hegira. 

14.  Hocus-pocus. 

15.  Humbug. 

16.  Inaugurate. 

17.  Inculcate. 

18.  Infidel. 

19.  Insolence. 

20.  Namby-pamby. 

21.  News. 

22.  Nickname. 

23.  Nuisance. 

24.  Organum. 

25.  Oscillation. 


26.  Paraphernalia. 

27.  Plagiarism. 

28.  Platonic. 

29.  Polka. 

30.  Proxy. 

31.  Querulous. 

32.  Quiz. 

33.  Ravenous. 

34.  Reliable. 

35.  Rostrum. 
36/  Rust. 

37.  School. 

38.  Schooner. 

39.  Scrutiny. 

40.  Shammy. 

41.  Sharper. 

42.  Speculation. 

43.  Smock. 

44.  Squaw. 

45.  Starvation. 

46.  Taboo. 

47.  Treacle. 

48.  Utopia. 

49.  Wiseacre. 

50.  Zounds. 


LECTURE  VI. 

ON  THE  DISTINCTION  OF    WORDS. 

SYNONYMS,  and  the  study  of  synonyms,  with 
the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  a  careful 
noting  of  the  distinction  between  them,  constitute 
the  subject  with  which  my  present  lecture  has  to  do. 
But  what,  you  may  ask,  is  meant  when,  comparing 
certain  words  with  one  another,  we  affirm  of  them 
that  they  are  synonyms  ?  We  imply  that,  with  great 
and  essential  resemblances  of  meaning,  they  have  at 
the  same  time  small,  subordinate,  and  partial  differ- 
ences— these  differences  being  such  as  either  originally 
and  on  the  ground  of  their  etymology,  inhered  in 
them  ;  or  differences  which  they  have  by  usage  ac- 
quired ;  or  such  as,  though  nearly  or  altogether 
latent  now,  they  are  capable  of  receiving  at  the  hands 
of  wise  and  discreet  masters  of  language.  Synonyms 
are  words  of  like  significance  in  the  main,  but  with  a 
certain  unlikeness  as  well ;  with  very  much  in  com- 
mon, but  also  with  something  private  and  particular, 
which  they  do  not  share  with  one  another.* 

*  The  word  *  synonym '  only  found  its  way  into  the  English  lanjjuage 
about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Its  recent  incoming  is 
marked  by  the  Greek  or  Latin  termination  which  for  a  while  it  bore ; 
Jeremy  Taylor  writing  *  synonymon,'  Hacket  *  synonymum,*  and 
Milton  (in  the  plural)  *  synonyma. '  On  the  subject  of  this  chapter  see 
Marsh,  Lectures  on  the  English  Language^  New  York,  i860,  p.  571, 
sqq. 


WORDS  NEVER  EXACTLY   SYNONYMOUS.       285 

So  soon  as  the  term  is  defined  thus,  it  will  be  at 
once  perceived  by  any  acquainted  with  its  etymology 
that,  strictly  speaking,  it  is  a  misnomer,  and  is  given, 
with  a  certain  inaccuracy  and  impropriety,  to  words 
which  fulfil  these  conditions  in  respect  of  one  another  ; 
since  in  strictness  of  speech  the  terms  *  synonyms  * 
and  *  synonymous,*  applied  to  words,  affirm  of  them 
that  they  cover  not  merely  almost,  but  altogether 
the  same  extent  of  meaning,  that  they  are  in  their 
signification  perfectly  identical  and  coincident ;  cir- 
cles, so  to  speak,  with  the  same  centre  and  the  same 
circumference.  The  terms,  however,  are  not  ordi- 
narily so  used  ;  they  evidently  are  not  so  by  such  as 
undertake  to  trace  out  the  distinction  between  syno- 
nyms ;  for,  without  venturing  to  deny  that  there  may 
be  such  perfect  synonyms,  words,  that  is,  with  this 
absolute  coincidence,  yet  these  could  not  be  the 
objects  of  any  such  discrimination  ;  since,  where"  no 
real  distinction  exists,  it  would  be  lost  labor  and  the 
exercise  of  a  perverse  ingenuity  to  attempt  to  draw 
one  out. 

There  are,  indeed,  those  who  affirm  that  words  in 
one  language  are  never  exactly  synonymous,  in  all 
respects  commensurate,  with  words  in  another ;  that, 
when  they  are  compared  with  one  another,  there  is 
always  something  more,  or  something  less  or  some- 
thing different,  in  one  as  compared  with  the  other, 
which  hinders  this  complete  identity.  And,  those 
words  being  excepted  which  designate  objects  in 
their  nature  absolutely  incapable  of  a  more  or  less 
and  of  every  qualitative  difference,  I  should  be  dis- 
posed to  consider  other  exceptions  to  this  assertion 


286  ON  THE  DISTINCTION  OF  WORDS. 

exceedingly  rare.  **  In  all  languages  whatever/*  to 
quote  Bentley's  words,  "  a  word  of  a  moral  or  of  a 
political  significance,  containing  several  complex 
ideas  arbitrarily  joined  together,  has  seldom  any 
correspondent  word  in  any  other  language  which  ex- 
tends to  all  these  ideas."  Nor  is  it  hard  to  trace 
reasons  sufficient  why  this  should  be  so.  For  what, 
after  all,  is  a  word,  but  the  enclosure  of  a  certain  dis- 
trict, larger  or  smaller,  from  the  vast  outfield  of 
thought  or  fact,  and  in  this  a  bringing  of  it  into 
human  cultivation,  a  rescuing  of  it  for  human  uses  ? 
But  how  extremely  unlikely  it  is  that  nations,  draw- 
ing quite  independently  of  one  another  these  Hues  of 
enclosure,  should  draw  them  in  all  or  most  cases  ex- 
actly in  the  same  direction,  neither  narrower  nor 
wider  ;  how  inevitable,  on  the  contrary,  that  very 
often  the  lines  should  not  coincide — and  this,  even 
supposing  no  moral  forces  at  work  to  disturb  the  fall- 
ing of  the  lines.  How  immense  and  instructive  a 
field  of  comparison  between  languages  does  this  fact 
lay  open  to  us  ;  while  it  is  sufficient  to  drive  a  trans- 
lator with  a  high  ideal  of  the  task  which  he  has 
undertaken  well-nigh  to  despair.  For  indeed  in  the 
transferring  of  any  matter  of  high  worth  from  one 
language  to  another  there  are  losses  involved,  which 
no  labor,  no  skill,  no  genius,  no  mastery  of  one  lan- 
guage or  of  both  can  prevent.  The  translator  may 
have  worthily  done  his  part,  may  have  '  turned  '  and 
not  *  overturned  '  his  original  (St.  Jerome  complains 
that  in  his  time  many  versiones  deserved  to  be  called 
eversiones  rather) ;  he  may  have  given  the  lie  to  the 
Italian  proverb,   *  Traduttori,  Traditori,*  or  *  Trans- 


DIFFICULTIES   OF  TRANSLATION.  287 

lators,  Traitors,*  men,  that  is,  who  do  not  *  render  * 
but  *  surrender '  their  author's  meaning,  and  yet  for 
all  this  the  losses  of  which  I  speak  will  not  have  been 
avoided. 

How  often  in  the  translation  of  Holy  Scripture 
from  the  language  in  which  it  was  first  delivered  into 
some  other  which  offers  more  words  than  one  where- 
by some  all-important  word  in  the  original  record 
should  be  rendered,  the  perplexity  has  been  great 
which  of  these  should  be  preferred.  Not,  indeed,  that 
there  was  here  an  embarrassment  of  riches,  but 
rather  an  embarrassment  of  poverty.  Each,  it  may  be, 
has  advantages  of  its  own,  but  each  also  its  own 
drawbacks  and  shortcomings.  There  is  nothing  but 
a  choice  of  difficulties  anyhow,  and  whichever  is  se- 
lected, it  will  be  found  that  the  treasure  of  God's 
thought  has  been  committed  to  an  earthen  vessel, 
and  one-  of  which  the  earthiness  will  not  fail  at  this 
point  or  at  that  to  appear  ;  while  yet,  with  all  this, 
of  what  far-reaching  importance  it  is  that  the  best, 
that  is,  the  least  inadequate,  word  should  be  chosen. 
Thus  the  missionary  translator,  if  he  be  at  all  aware 
of  the  awful  implement  which  he  is  wielding,  of  the 
tremendous  crisis  in  a  people's  spiritual  life  which 
has  arrived,  when  their  language  is  first  made  the 
vehicle  of  the  truths  of  Revelation,  will  often  tremble 
at  the  work  he  has  in  hand  ;  he  will  tremble  lest  he 
be  permanently  lowering  or  confusing  the  whole  spir- 
itual life  of  a  people,  by  choosing  a  meaner  and  let- 
ting go  a  nobler  word  for  the  setting  forth  of  some 
leading  truth  of  redemption  ;  and  yet  the  choice  how 
difficult,  the  nobler  itself  falling  how  infinitely  below 


288  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

his  desires,  and  below  the  truth  of  which  he  would 
make  it  the  bearer. 

Even  those  who  are  wholly  ignorant  of  Chinese 
can  yet  perceive  how  vast  the  spiritual  interests 
which  are  at  stake  in  China,  how  much  will  be  won 
or  how  much  lost  for  the  whole  spiritual  life  of  its 
people,  it  may  be  for  ages  to  come,  according  as  the 
right  or  the  wrong  word  is  selected  by  our  translators 
for  designating  the  true  and  the  living  God.  As 
many  of  us  indeed  as  are  ignorant  of  the  language 
can  be  no  judges  in  the  controversy  which  on  this 
subject  is,  or  was  lately,  carried  on  ;  but  we  can  all 
feel  how  vital  the  question,  how  enormous  the  inter- 
ests at  stake  ;  while,  not  less,  having  heard  the  alle- 
gations on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other,  we  must 
own  that  there  is  only  an  alternative  of  difficulties 
here. 

To  come  nearer  home.  At  the  Reformation,  when 
Latin  was  more  or  less  the  language  of  theology, 
how  earnest  a  controversy  raged  round  the  word  of 
the  Greek  Testament  which  we  have  rendered  'repent- 
ance ' ;  whether  '  poenitentia  '  should  be  allowed  to 
stand,  hallowed  by  long  usage  as  it  was,  or  '  resipis- 
centia,'  as  many  of  the  Reformers  preferred,  should 
be  substituted  in  its  room  ;  and  how  much  there  was 
which  on  either  side  might  be  urged.  Not  otherwise, 
at  an  earlier  date,  *  Sermo'  and  '  Verbum'  contended 
for  the  honor  of  rendering  the  *  Logos '  of  St.  John  ; 
though  here  there  can  be  no  serious  doubt  on  which 
side  the  advantage  lay. 

But  this  of  the  relation  of  words  in  one  language  to 
words  in  another,  and  of  all  the  questions  which  may 


SYNONYMS   DESCRIBED.  289 

thus  be  raised,  is  a  sea  too  large  for  me  to  launch 
upon  now,  and  with  thus  much  said  to  invite  you  to 
have  open  eyes  and  ears  for  such  questions,  seeing 
that  they  are  often  full  of  teaching,  I  must  leave  this 
subject,  and  limit  myself  in  this  Lecture  to  a  compar- 
ison between  words,  not  in  different  languages,  but 
in  the  same. 

Synonyms,  then,  as  the  term  is  generally  under- 
stood, and  as  I  shall  proceed  to  use  it,  are  words  in 
the  same  language  with  slight  differences  either  al- 
ready established  between  them,  or  potentially  sub- 
sisting in  them.  They  are  not  on  the  one  side  words 
absolutely  identical,  for  such,  as  has  been  said  al- 
ready, afford  no  room  for  discrimination,  but  neither 
on  the  other  side  words  only  remotely  similar  to  one 
another  ;  for  the  differences  between  these  last  will 
be  self-evident,  will  so  lie  on  the  surface  and  proclaim 
themselves  to  all,  that  it  would  be  as  superfluous  an 
office  as  holding  a  candle  to  the  sun  to  attempt  to 
make  this  clearer  than  it  already  is.  It  may  be 
desirable  to  trace  and  fix  the  difference  between 
scarlet  and  crimson,  for  these  might  easily  be  con- 
founded ;  but  who  would  think  of  so  doing  between 
scarlet  and  green  ?  or  again  between  covetousness 
and  avarice  ;  while  it  would  be  idle  and  superfluous 
to  do  the  same  for  covetousness  and  pride.  They 
must  be  words  which  are  more  or  less  liable  to  confu- 
sion, but  which  yet  ought  not  to  be  confounded  ; 
as  one  has  said,  "  qua^  conjungi,  non  confundi,  de- 
bent  ;"  in  which  there  originally  inhered  a  difference, 
or  between  which,  though  once  absolutely  identical, 
such  has  gradually  grown  up,  and  so  established  it- 
13 


290  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

self  in  the  use  of  the  best  writers,  and  in  the  instinct 
of  the  best  speakers  of  the  tongue,  that  it  claims  to 
be  openly  acknowledged  by  all. 

But  here  an  interesting  question  presents  itself  to 
us  :  How  do  languages  come  to  possess  synonyms 
of  this  latter  class,  which  are  differenced  not  by  ety- 
mology, nor  by  any  other  deep-lying  cause,  but  only 
by  usage?  Now  if  languages  had  been  made  by  agree- 
ment, of  course  no  such  synonyms  as  these  could  exist; 
for  when  once  a  word  had  been  found  which  was  the 
adequate  representative  of  a  thought,  feeling,  or  fact, 
no  second  one  would  have  been  sought.  But  lan- 
guages are  the  result  of  processes  very  different  from, 
and  far  less  formal  and  regular  than,  this.  Various 
tribes,  each  with  its  own  dialect,  kindred  indeed,  but 
in  many  respects  distinct,  coalesce  into  one  people, 
and  cast  their  contributions  of  language  into  a  com- 
mon stock.  Thus  the  French  possesses  many  syno- 
nyms from  the  langiie  d'  Oc  and  langiie  cT  Oily  each 
having  contributed  its  word  for  one  and  the  same 
thing,  as  *  dtre  '  and  '  foyer,'  both  for  hearth.  Some- 
times different  tribes  of  the  same  people  have  the 
same  word,  yet  in  forms  sufficiently  different  to  cause 
that  both  remain,  but  as  words  distinct  from  one 
another  ;  thus  in  Latin  *  scrpo  '  and  *  repo '  are  dia- 
lectic variations  of  the  same  word ;  *  puteo  *  and 
*  fceteo  *  are  the  same  ;  just  as  in  German,  *  odem  ' 
and  *  athem '  were  only  dialectic  differences  at  the 
first.  Or  again,  a  conquering  people  have  fixed 
themselves  in  the  midst  of  a  conquered  ;  they  impose 
their  dominion,  but  do  not  succeed  in  imposing  their 
language  ;  nay,  being  few  in  number,  they  find  them- 


IMPORTATION   OF  SYNONYMS.  29 1 

selves  at  last  compelled  to  adopt  the  language  of  the 
conquered  ;  yet  not  so  but  that  a  certain  compromise 
between  the  two  languages  find  place.  One  carries 
the  day,  but  on  the  condition  that  it  shall  admit  as 
naturalized  denizens  a  vast  number  of  the  words  of 
the  other,  which  in  some  instances  expel,  but  in 
many  others  subsist  as  synonyms  side  by  side  with 
the  native  words. 

There  are  causes  of  the  existence  of  synonyms 
which  reach  far  back  into  the  history  of  a  nation  and 
a  language  ;  but  other  causes  at  a  later  period  are 
also  at  work.  When  a  written  literature  springs  up, 
authors  familiar  with  various  foreign  tongues  import 
from  one  and  another  words  which  are  not  absolutely 
required,  which  are  oftentimes  rather  luxuries  than 
necessities.  Sometimes,  having  a  very  sufficient  word 
of  their  own,  they  must  needs  go  and  look  fdr  a  finer 
one,  as  they  esteem  it,  from  abroad  ;  as,  for  instance, 
the  Latin  having  its  own  expressive  *  succinum ' 
(from  'succus'),  for  amber,  some  must  import  from 
the  Greek  the  ambiguous  *  electrum.'  Of  these  thus 
proposed  as  candidates  for  admission,  some  fail  to 
obtain  the  rights  of  citizenship,  and  after  longer 
or  shorter  probation  are  rejected  ;  it  may  be,  never 
advance  beyond  their  first  proposer.  Enough,  how- 
ever, receive  the  stamp  of  popular  allowance  to 
create  embarrassment  for  awhile,  until,  that  is,  their 
relations  with  the  already  existing  words  are  adjusted. 
As  a  single  illustration  of  the  various  quarters  from 
which  the  English  has  thus  been  augmented  and 
enriched,  I  would  instance  the  words  *  trick,'  *  de- 
vice,' *  finesse,'  *  artifice,'  and  *  stratagem,'  and  re- 


292  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF   WORDS. 

mind  you  of  the  various  sources  from  which  we  have 
drawn  them.  Here  *  trick '  is  Saxon,  *  devisa  *  is 
Italian,  '  finesse '  is  French,  '  artificium '  is  Latin, 
and  *  stratagema  *  Greek. 

By  and  by,  however  as  a  language  becomes  itself 
an  object  of  closer  attention,  at  the  same  time  that 
society,  advancing  from  a  simpler  to  a  more  complex 
condition,  has  more  things  to  designate,  more 
thoughts  to  utter,  and  more  distinctions  to  draw,  it 
is  felt  as  a  waste  of  resources  to  employ  two  or  more 
words  for  the  signifying  of  one  and  the  same  thing. 
Men  feel,  and  rightly,  that  with  a  boundless  world 
lying  around  them  and  demanding  to  be  catalogued 
and  named,  and  which  they  only  make  truly  their 
own  in  the  measure  and  to  the  extent  that  they  do 
name  it,  with  infinite  shades  and  varieties  of  thought 
and  feeling  subsisting  in  their  own  minds,  and  claim- 
ing to  find  utterance  in  words,  it  is  a  wanton  extrava- 
gance to  expend  two  or  more  signs  on  that  which 
could  adequately  be  set  forth  by  one — an  extrava- 
gance in  one  part  of  their  expenditure,  which  will  be 
almost  sure  to  issue  in,  and  to  be  punished  by,  a 
corresponding  scantness  and  straitness  in  another. 
Some  thought  or  feeling  will  wholly  want  one  ade- 
quate sign,  because  another  has   two.*      Hereupon 

*  We  have  a  memorable  example  of  this  in  the  history  of  the  great 
controversy  of  the  Church  with  the  Arians.  In  the  first  stages  of  this, 
the  upholders  of  the  Catholic  faith  used  ohcria  and  vir6aTaais  as  identical 
in  force  and  meaning  with  one  another,  Athanasius,  in  as  many  words, 
affirming  them  to  be  such.  As,  however,  the  controversy  went  forward 
if  was  perceived  that  doctrinal  results  of  the  highest  importance  might 
be  fixed  and  secured  for  the  Church  through  the  assigning  severally  to 
these  words  distinct  modifications  of  meaning.     This  accordingly,  in 


PROCESS   OF   DESYNONYMIZING.  293 

that  which  has  been  well  called  the  process  of  *  desy- 
nonymizing'  begins — that  is,  of  gradually  discrimina- 
ting in  use  between  words  which  have  hitherto  been 
accounted  perfectly  equivalent,  and,  as  such,  indiffer- 
ently employed.  It  is  a  positive  enriching  of  a  lan- 
guage when  this  process  is  at  any  point  felt  to  be 
accomplished  ;  when  two  or  more  words,  once  pro- 
miscuously used,  have  had  each  its  own  peculiar  do- 
main assigned  to  it,  which  it  shall  not  itself  overstep, 
upon  which  the  others  shall  not  encroach.  This  may 
seem  at  first  sight  only  as  a  better  regulation  of  old 
territory  ;  for  all  practical  purposes  it  is  the  acquisi- 
tion of  new. 

This  desynonymizing  process  is  not  effected  ^  ac- 
cording to  any  prearranged  purpose  or  plan.  The 
working  genius  of  the  language  accomplishes  its  own 
objects,  causes  these  synonymous  words  insensibly 
to  fall  off  from  one  another,  and  to  acquire  separate 
and  peculiar  meanings.  The  most  that  any  single 
writer  can  do,  save  indeed  in  the  terminology  of 
science,  is  to  assist  an  already  existing  inclination,  to 
bring  to  the  clear  consciousness  of  all  that  which 
already  has  been  obscurely  felt  by  many,  and  thus  to 
hasten  the  process  of  this  disengagement,  or,  as  it 
has  been  well  expressed,  ''  to  regulate  and  ordinate 
the  evident  nisus  and  tendency  of  the  popular  usage 
into  a  severe  definition  ;  "  and  establish  on  a  firm 
basis  the  distinction,  so  that  it  shall  not  be  lost  sight 

the  Greek  Chmxh,  was  done ;  while  the  Latin,  desiring  to  move/<zr/ 
passUf  did  yet  find  itself  most  seriously  embarrassed  and  hindered  in  so 
doing  by  the  fact  that  it  had,  or  assumed  that  it  had,  but  the  one  word, 


294  ON  THE  DISTINCTION  OF  WORDS. 

of  or  brought  into  question  again.  Thus,  long  before 
Wordsworth  wrote,  it  was  obscurely  felt  by  many 
that  in  '  imagination  '  there  was  more  of  the  earnest, 
in  *  fancy  *  of  the  play,  of  the  spirit,  that  the  first  was 
a  loftier  faculty  and  power  than  the  second.  The 
tendency  of  the  language  was  all  in  this  direction. 
None  would  for  some  time  back  have  employed 
*  fancy  '  as  Milton  employs  it,*  ascribing  to  it  opera- 
tions which  we  have  learned  to  reserve  for  *  imagina- 
tion '  alone,  and  indeed  subordinating  *  imaginations  * 
to  fancy,  as  a  part  of  the  materials  with  which  it 
deals.  Yet  for  all  this  the  words  were  continually, 
and  not  without  injury,  confounded.  Wordsworth 
first,  in  the  Preface  to  his  Lyrical  Ballads ^  rendered 
it  impossible  for  any,  who  had  read  and  mastered 
what  he  had  written  on  the  matter,  to  remain  uncon- 
scious any  longer  of  the  essential  difference  between 
them.f     This  is  but  one  example,  an  illustrious  one 

*  Paradise  Lost,  v.  102-105  >  ^°  *°^  Longinus,  De  Siibl.  15. 

f  Thus  De  Quincey  {Letters  to  a  Young  Man  wJwse  Education  has 
been  Neglected)  :  "All  languages  tend  to  clear  themselves  of  synonyms, 
as  intellectual  culture  advances;  the  superfluous  words  being  taken  up 
and  appropriated  by  new  shades  and  combinations  of  thought  evolved 
in  the  progress  of  society.  And  long  before  this  appropriation  is  fixed 
and  petrified,  as  it  were,  into  the  acknowledged  vocabulary  of  the  lan- 
guage, an  insensible  ciinamen  (to  borrow  a  Lucretian  word)  prepares 
the  way  for  it.  Thus,  for  instance,  before  Mr.  Wordsworth  had  un- 
veiled the  great  philosophic  distinction  between  the  powers  of  fancy 
and  imagination,  the  two  words  had  begun  to  diverge  from  each  other, 
the  first  being  used  to  express  a  faculty  somewhat  capricious  and  ex- 
empted from  law,  the  other  to  express  a  faculty  more  self-determined. 
When,  therefore,  it  was  at  length  perceived,  that  under  an  apparent 
unity  of  meaning  there  lurked  a  real  dualism,  and  for  philosophic  pur- 
poses it  was  necessary  that  this  distinction  should  have  its  appropriate 
expression,  this  necessity  was  met  half  way  by  the  ciinamen  which  had 


RECENT  DISTINCTIONS.  .      295 

indeed,  of  what  has  been  going  forward  in  innumer- 
able pairs  of  words.  Thus  in  Wiclifs  time,  and 
long  after,  there  seems  to  have  been  no  difference 
recognized  between  a  *  famine  '  and  a  *  hunger ' ; 
they  both  expressed  the  outward  fact  of  a  dearth  of 
food.  It  was  a  genuine  gain  when,  leaving  to  '  fam- 
ine '  this  meaning,  by  '  hunger '  was  expressed  no 
longer  the  outward  fact,  but  the  inward  sense  of  the 
fact.  Other  pairs  of  words  between  which  a  distinc- 
tion is  recognized  now  which  was  not  recognized 
some  centuries  ago  are  the  following  :  *  to  clarify  * 
and  '  to  glorify  ' ;  *  to  drench  '  and  *  to  drown '  ;  *  to 
admire  '  and  '  to  wonder  ' ;  *  to  convince  '  and  '  to 
convict '  ;  *  reign  '  and  *  kingdom  '  ;  '  merit '  and  *  de- 
merit,' mutton  '  and  *  sheep  '  ;  *  feminine  '  and  '  ef- 
feminate '  ;  *  mortal '  and  *  deadly  ' ;  *  ingenious ' 
and  *  ingenuous  ' ;  needful '  and  *  needy  ' ;  '  voluntary ' 
and  *  wilful.'  * 

already  affected  the  popular  usage  of  the  words."  Compare  what  Cole- 
ridge had  before  said  on  the  same  matter,  Biogr.  Lit.  vol.  i.  p.  90; 
and  what  Ruskin,  Modern  Painters.^  part  3,  §  2,  ch.  3,  has  said  since. 
It  is  to  Coleridge  that  we  owe  the  word  *  to  desynonymize '  {Biogr. 
Lit.  p.  87) — which  is  certainly  preferable  to  Professor  Grote'  s  *  despe- 
cificate.'  Purists  indeed  will  object  that  it  is  of  hy.brid  formation,  the 
prefix  Latin,  the  body  of  the  word  Greek  ;  but  for  all  this  it  may  very 
well  stand  till  a  better  is  offered.  His  own  contributions,  direct  and 
indirect,  in  this  province  are  perhaps  more  in  number  and  in  value  than 
those  of  any  other  English  writer  ;  thus  to  him  we  owe  the  disentangle- 
ment of  *  fanaticism'  and  *  enthusiasm'  {Lit.  Rejn.  vol.  ii.  p.  365)  ;  of 
'keenness'  and  'subtlety'  {Table-Talk.^  p.  140);  of  *  poetry'  and 
•  poesy '  {Lit.  Rem.  vol.  i.  p.  219)  ;  of  '  analogy'  and  'metaphor  '  {Aids 
to  Rejlection.^  1825,  p.  198)  ;  and  that  on  which  he  himself  laid  so  great 
a  stress,  of  *  reason  '  and  *  understanding.' 

*  For  the  exact  difference  between  these,  and  other  pairs  or  larger 
groups  of  words,  see  my  Select  Glossary. 


296  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF   WORDS. 

A  multitude  of  words  in  English  are  still  waiting 
for  a  similar  discrimination  ;  which  many,  no  doubt, 
in  due  time  will  obtain,  and  the  language  prove  so 
much  richer  thereby ;  for  certainly  if  Coleridge  had 
right  when  he  affirmed  that  "  every  new  term  express- 
ing a  fact  or  a  difference  not  precisely  or  adequately 
expressed  by  any  other  word  in  the  same  language,  is 
a  new  organ  of  thought  for  the  mind  that  has  learned 
it,"  *  we  are  justified  in  regarding  these  distinctions 
which  are  still  waiting  to  be  made  as  so  much  rever- 
sionary wealth  in  our  mother  tongue.  Thus  how 
real  an  ethical  gain  would  it  be,  how  much  clearness 
would  it  bring  into  men's  thoughts  and  actions,  if  the 
distinction  which  exists  in  Latin  between  *  vindicta ' 
and  *  ultio,'  that  the  first  is  a  moral  act,  the  just  pun- 
ishment of  the  sinner  by  his  God,  of  the  criminal  by 
the  judge,  the  other  an  act  in  which  the  self-gratifica- 
tion of  one  who  counts  himself  injured  or  offended  is 
sought,  could  in  like  manner  be  fully  established 
(vaguely  felt  it  already  is),  between  our  '  vengeance' 
and  *  revenge '  ;  so  that  *  vengeance  '  (with  the  verb 
*  to  avenge ')  should  never  be  ascribed  save  to  God, 
or  to  men  acting  as  the  executors  of  his  righteous 
doom  ;  while  all  retaliation  to  which  not  zeal  for  his 
righteousness,  but  men's  own  sinful  passions  have 
given  the  impulse  and  the  motive,  should  be  termed 
'revenge.'  As  it  now  is,  the  moral  disapprobation 
which  cleaves,  and  cleaves  justly,  to  '  revenge,'  is 
oftentimes  transferred  almost  unconsciously  to  '  ven- 
geance '  ;  while  yet  without  vengeance  it  is  impossi- 

•  Church  and  State,  p.  2CX). 


DUPLICATE   WORDS.  29/ 

ble  to  conceive  in  a  world  of  so  much  evil-doing  any 
effectual  assertion  of  righteousness,  any  moral  govern- 
ment whatever. 

The  causes  mentioned  above,  namely  that  our 
modern  Enghsh,  Teutonic  in  its  main  structure,  yet 
draws  so  large  a  portion  of  its  verbal  wealth  from  the 
Latin,  and  has  further  welcomed,  and  found  place 
for,  many  later  accessions,  these  have  together  ef- 
fected that  we  possess  a  great  many  duplicates,  not 
to  speak  of  triplicates,  or  of  such  a  quintuplicate  as 
that  which  I  adduced  just  now,  where  the  Teutonic, 
French,  Italian,  Latin,  and  Greek  had  each  yielded 
us  a  word.  Let  me  mention  a  few  duplicate  sub- 
stantives, Old-English  and  Latin  :  thus  we  have 
'  shepherd  '  and  '  pastor '  ;  '  feehng '  and  '  sentiment '  ; 
*  handbook  '  and  *  manual '  ;  '  ship  '  and  *  nave  '  ; 
'anger'  and  'ire';  'grief  and  'dolour';  'king- 
dom,' '  reign,'  and  '  realm  '  ;  '  love  '  and  '  charity  '  ; 
'  feather  '  and  '  plume  '  ;  '  forerunner '  and  '  pre- 
cursor '  ;  '  foresight'  and  '  providence  '  ;  '  freedom  ' 
and  '  liberty  '  ;  '  murder  '  and  '  homicide  '  ;  '  moons  ' 
and  '  lunes '  ; — this  last  is  not  met  in  the  singular,  and 
only  once  in  the  plural.  Sometimes,  in  theology 
and  science  especially,  we  have  gone  both  to  the 
Latin  and  to  the  Greek,  and  drawn  the  same  word 
from  them  both  :  thus  '  deist '  and  '  theist '  ;  '  numer- 
ation '  and  'arithmetic';  'revelation'  and  'apoc- 
alypse '  ;  '  temporal  '  and  '  chronic  ' ;  '  compassion  ' 
and  '  sympathy  '  ;  '  supposition  '  and  '  hypothesis  '  ; 
'  transparent '  and  '  diaphanous  '  ;  '  digit '  and  '  dac- 
tyle.'  But  to  return  to  the  Old-EngHsh  and  Latin, 
the  main  factors  of  our  tongue.  Besides  duphcate 
13 


298  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

substantives,  we  have  duplicate  verbs,  such  as  '  to 
whiten  '  and  *  to  blanch  '  ;  *  to  soften  '  and  *  to 
mollify '  ;  *  to  unload  *  and  '  to  exonerate  '  ;  *  to 
cloke  '  and  '  to  palliate  * ;  with  many  more.  Dupli- 
cate adjectives  also    are  numerous,  as  '  shady '  and 

*  umbrageous  '  ;  *  unreadable  '  and  '  illegible  '  ;  '  un- 
friendly '  and  *  inimical ' ;  '  almighty  '  and  *  omni- 
potent '  ;  *  unchangeable  '  and  *  immutable  '  ;  *  un- 
shunnable  '  and  *  inevitable.'  Occasionally  where  in 
Old-English  only  one  substantive  exists,  yet  the 
adjectives  are  duplicate  ;  and  our  modern  English, 
not  adopting  the  Latin  substantive,  has  admitted  the 
adjective  ;  thus  *  burden  '  has  not  merely  *  burden- 
some *  but  also  *  onerous,'  while  yet  *  onus  '  has  found 
no  place  with  us  ;  *  priest '  has  *  priestly'  and  '  sacer- 
dotal' ;  •  king '  has  '  kingly,'  *  regal,'  which  is  purely 
Latin,  and  '  royal,'  which  is  Latin  distilled  through 
the  French.     'Bodily'  and  *  corporal,'   *  boyish'  and 

*  puerile,'  *  fiery'  and  *  igneous,'  '  wooden  '  and  *  lig- 
neous,' 'worldly'  and  'mundane,'  'bloody'  and 
'  sanguine,'  *  watery  '  and  '  aqueous,'  '  fearful '  and 
'  timid,*  '  manly'  and  '  virile,'  '  womanly'  and  '  fem- 
inine,' 'sunny'  and  'solar,'  'starry'  and  'stellar,' 
'  yearly  '  and  '  annual,'  '  weighty  '  and  '  ponderous,' 
may  all  be  placed  in  the  same  list.  Nor  are  these 
more  than  a  handful  of  words  out  of  the  number 
which  might  be  adduced.  You  would  find  both 
pleasure  and  profit  in  enlarging  these  lists,  and  as  far 
as  you  are  able,  making  them  gradually  complete. 

If  we  look  closely  at  words  which  have  succeeded 
in  thus  maintaining  their  ground,  one  no  less  than 
the  other,  we  shall  note  that  in  almost  every  instance 


SEPARATE   SPHERES   OF  WORDS.  299 

they  have  little  by  little  asserted  for  themselves  sepa- 
rate spheres  of  meaning,  have  in  usage  become  more 
or  less  distinct.  Thus  we  use  *  shepherd '  almost 
always  in  its  primary  meaning,  keeper  of  sheep  ; 
while  *  pastor '  is  exclusively  used  in  the  tropical 
sense,  one  that  feeds  the  flock  of  God  ;  at  the  same 
time  the  language  having  only  the  one  adjective, 
*  pastoral,*  that  is  of  necessity  common  to  both. 
'  Love '  and  '  charity '  are  used  in  our  Authorized 
Version  of  Scripture  promiscuously,  and  out  of  the 
sense  of  their  equivalence  are  made  to  represent  one 
and  the  same  Greek  word  ;  but  in  modern  use  *  char- 
ity '  has  come  predominantly  to  signify  one  particular 
manifestation  of  love,  the  ministry  to  the  bodily  needs 
of  others,  '  love  *  continuing  to  express  the  affection 
of  the  soul.  '  Ship  '  remains  in  its  literal  meaning, 
while  *  nave '  has  become  a  symbolic  term  used  in 
sacred  architecture  alone.  '  Kingdom '  is  concrete, 
as  the  *  kingdom '  of  Great  Britain,  '  reign  '  is  ab- 
stract, the  *  reign  '  of  Queen  Victoria.  An  *  auditor ' 
and  a"  *  hearer,'  though  they  were  not  once,  are  now 
altogether  different  from  one  another.  *  Illegible  '  is 
applied  to  the  handwriting,  '  unreadable '  to  the  sub- 
ject-matter written  ;  a  man  writes  an  *  illegible  *  hand  ; 
he  has  published  an  '  unreadable '  book.  '  Foresight ' 
is  ascribed  to  men,  but  *  providence '  for  the  most 
part  designates,  as  irpovoia  also  came  to  do,  the 
far-looking  wisdom  of  God,  by  which  He  governs 
and  graciously  cares  for  His  people.  It  becomes 
boys  to  be  'boyish,'  but  not  men  to  be  'puerile.' 
'  To  blanch '  is  to  withdraw  coloring  matter  :  we 
'  blanch  '   almonds  or  linen  ;    or  the  cheek  by  the 


300  ON  THE   DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

withdrawing  of  the  blood  is  *  blanched '  with  fear  ; 
but  we  '  whiten  '  a  wall,  not  by  withdrawing  some 
other  color,  but  by  the  superinducing  of  white  ;  thus 
*  whited  sepulchres.'  When  we  'palliate'  our  own 
or  other  people's  faults  we  do  not  seek  '  to  cloke  ' 
them  altogether,  but  only  to  extenuate  the  guilt 
of  them  in  part. 

It  might  be  urged  that  there  was  a  certain  pre- 
paredness in  these  words  to  separate  off  in  their  mean- 
ing from  one  another,  inasmuch  as  they  originally  be- 
longed to  different  stocks  ;  and  this  may  very  well 
have  assisted  ;  but  we  find  the  same  process  at  work 
where  original  difference  of  stock  can  have  supplied 
no  such  assistance.  'Astronomy'  and  'astrology' 
are  both  drawn  from  the  Greek,  nor  is  there  any 
reason  beforehand  why  the  second  should  not  be  in 
as  honorable  use  as  the  first ;  for  it  is  the  reason,  as 
'astronomy'  the  law,  of  the  stars.*  But  seeing 
there  is  a  true  and  a  false  science  of  the  stars,  both 
needing  words  to  utter  them,  it  has  come  to  pass 
that  in  our  later  use,- '  astrology '  designates  always 
that  pretended  science  of  imposture,  which  affecting 
to  submit  the  mor^d  freedom  of  men  to  the  influences 

*  So  entirely  was  any  determining  reason  wanting,  that  for  some 
wliile  it  was  a  question  ivhick  word  should  obtain  the  honorable 
employment,  and  it  seemed  as  if  *  astrology '  and  *  astrologer '  would 
have  done  so,  as  this  extract  from  Bishop  Hooper  makes  abundantly 
plain  {Early  VVritingSy  Parker  Society,  p.  331) :  '  The  rtj/;v/t7^<rr  is  he 
that  knoweth  the  course  and  motions  of  the  heavens  and  teacheth  the 
same ;  which  is  a  virtue  if  it  pass  not  its  bounds,  and  become  of  an 
astrologer  an  astronomer^  who  taketh  upon  him  to  give  judgment  and 
censure  of  these  motions  and  courses  of  the  heavens,  what  they  prog- 
nosticate and  destiny  unto  the  creature." 


DESPAIR   AND   DIFFIDENCE.  3OI 

of  the  heavenly  bodies,  prognosticates  future  events 
from  the  position  of  these,  as  contrasted  with  *  astron- 
omy,' that  true  science  which  investigates  the  laws 
of  the  heavenly  bodies  in  their  relations  to  one  an- 
other and  to  the  planet  upon  which  we  dwell. 

As  these  are  both  from  the  Greek,  so  *  despair  ' 
and  *  diffidence  '  are  both,  though  the  second  more 
directly  than  the  first,  from  the  Latin.  At  a  period 
not  very  long  past  the  difference  between  them  was 
hardly  appreciable  ;  one  was  hardly  stronger  than  the 
other.  If  in  one  the  absence  of  all  Jiope,  in  the 
other  that  of  all  faith^  was  implied.  In  The  Pil- 
grim's Progress^  a  book  with  which  every  English 
schoolmaster  will  be  familiar,  *  Mistress  Diffidence  '  is 
*  Giant  Despair  s  '  wife,  and  not  a  whit  behind  him  in 
deadly  enmity  to  the  pilgrims  ;  even  as  Jeremy  Tay- 
lor speaks  of  the  impenitent  sinner's  *  diffidence  in  the 
hour  of  death,'  meaning,  as  the  context  plainly  shows, 
his  despair.  But  to  what  end  two  words  for  one  and 
the  same  thing  ?  And  thus  *  diffidence  '  did  not  re- 
tain that  energy  of  meaning  which  it  had  at  the  first, 
but  Httle  by  little  assumed  a  more  mitigated  sense 
(Hobbes  speaks  of  *  men's  diffidence,'  or  distrust  ^  of 
one  another'),  till  it  has  come  now  to  signify  a  becom- 
ing distrust  of  ourselves,  a  humble  estimate  of  our 
own  powers,  with  only  a  slight  intimation,  as  in  the 
later  use  of  the  Latin  '  verecundia,'  that  perhaps  this 
distrust  is  carried  too  far. 

Again,  *  interference  '  and  *  interposition '  are  both 
from  the  Latin  ;  and  here  too  there  is  no  anterior 
necessity  that  they  should  possess  those  different 
shades  of  meaning  which  actually  they  have  obtained 


302  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

among  us  ;— the  Latin  verbs  which  form  their  latter 
halves  being  about  as  strong  one  as  the  other.  And 
yet  in  our  practical  use,  *  interference  '  is  something 
offensive  ;  it  is  the  pushing  in  of  himself  between  two 
parties  on  the  part  of  a  third,  who  was  not  asked,  and 
is  not  thanked  for  his  pains,  and  who,  as  the  feeling 
of  the  word  implies,  had  no  business  there  ;  while 
*  interposition  '  is  employed  to  express  the  friendly 
peace-making  mediation  of  one  whom  the  act  well 
became,  and  who,  even  if  he  was  not  specially  invited 
thereunto,  is  still  thanked  for  what  he  has  done. 
How  real  an  increase  is  it  in  the  wealth  and  efficiency 
of  a  language  thus  to  have  discriminated  such  words 
as  these  ;  and  to  be  able  to  express  acts  outwardly 
the  same  by  different  words,  according  as  we  would 
praise  or  blame  the  temper  and  spirit  out  of  which 
they  sprung.* 

Take  now  some  words  not  thus  desynonymized  by 
usage  only,  but  having  a  fundamental  etymological 
distinction, — one,  however,  which  it  would  be  easy 
to   overlook,  which,  so   long   as   we   dwell   on   the 


♦  If  in  the  course  of  time  distinctions  are  thus  created,  and  if  this  is 
the  tendency  of  lauj^uage,  yet  they  are  also  sometimes,  though  far  less 
often,  obliterated.  Thus  the  fine  distinction  between  *yea'  and  *yes,' 
'nay'  and  *no,'  once  existing  in  English,  has  quite  disappeared. 
*Yea'  and  'Nay'  in  Wiclifs  time,  and  a  good  deal  later,  were 
the  answers  to  questions  framed  in  the  affirmative.  '  Will  he  come  ?  ' 
To  this  it  would  have  been  replied,  *  Yea  '  or  *  Nay,'  as  the  case  might 
be.  But  •  Will  he  not  come  ? ' — to  this  the  answer  would  have  been, 
'  Yes,'  or  *  No.'  Sir  Thomas  More  finds  fault  with  Tyndale,  that  in 
his  translation  of  the  Bible  he  had  not  observed  this  distinction,  which 
was  evidently  therefore  going  out  even  then,  that  is  in  the  rcigi? 
of  Henry  VIII.,  and  shortly  after  it  was  quite  forgotten. 


ARROGANT,  PRESUMPTUOUS,  INSOLENT.        303 

surface  of  the  word,  we  shall  overlook  ;  and  try 
whether  we  shall  not  be  gainers  by  bringing  out  the 
distinction  into  clear  consciousness.  Here  are  '  arro- 
gant,' '  presumptuous,'  and  *  insolent '  ;  we  often 
use  them  promiscuously  ;  yet  let  us  examine  them  a 
little  more  closely,  and  ask  ourselves  as  soon  as 
we  have  traced  the  lines  of  demarcation  between 
them,  whether  we  are  not  now  in  possession  of  three 
distinct  thoughts,  instead  of  a  single  confused  one. 
He  is  *  arrogant,'  who  claims  the  observance  and 
homage  of  others  as  his  due  (ad  rogo)  ;  who  does 
not  wait  for  them  to  offer,  but  himself  demands 
all  this  ;  or  who,  having  right  to  one  sort  of  observ- 
ance, claims  another  to  which  he  has  no  right.  Thus, 
it  was  *  arrogance '  in  Nebuchadnezzar,  when  he 
required  that  all  men  should  fall  down  before  the 
image  which  he  had  reared.  He,  a  man,  was  claim- 
ing for  man's  work  the  homage  which  belonged  only 
to  God.  But  one  is  '  presumptuous  '  who  takes  things 
to  himself  before  he  has  acquired  any  title  to  them 
(pras  sumo)  ;  as  the  young  man  who  already  takes 
the  place  of  the  old,  the  learner  who  speaks  with  the 
authority  of  the  teacher.  By  and  by  all  this  may 
very  justly  be  his,  but  it  is  '  presumption'  to  anticipate 
it  now.  *  Insolent '  means  properly  no  more  than 
unusual  ;  to  act  *  insolently '  is  to  act  unusually. 
The  offensive  meaning  which  *  insolent '  has  acquired 
rests  upon  the  sense  that  there  is  a  certain  well- 
understood  rule  of  society,  a  recognized  standard 
of  moral  behavior,  to  which  each  of  its  members 
s^hould  conform.  The  *  insolent '  man  is  one  who 
violates  this  rule,  who  breaks  through  this  order, 


304  ON   THE   DISTINCTION   OF   WORDS. 

acting  in  an  unaccustomed  manner.  The  same  sense 
of  the  orderly  being   also   the   moral,   is  implied   in 

*  irregular  '  ;  a  man  of  '  irregular  '  is  for  us  a  man  of 
immoral  life  ;  and  yet  more  strongly  in  Latin,  which 
has  but  one  word  (niores)  for  customs  and  morals. 

Or  consider  the  following  words  :  *  to  hate,'  *  to 
loathe,'  *  to  detest,'  *  to  abhor.'  Each  of  them  rests 
on  an  image  entirely  distinct  from  the  others  ;  two, 
the  first  and  second,  being  native  English,  and  the 
others  imparted  Latin.  *  To  hate,'  is  properly  to  be 
iuflamed  with  passionate  dislike,  the  word  being  pro- 
bably connected  with  *  heat,'  '  hot '  ;  just  as  we  speak, 
using  the  same  figure,  of  persons  being  *  incensed ' 
with  anger,  or  of  their  anger   *  kindling  '  ;   '  ira '  and 

*  uro '  being  perhaps  in  like  manner  related  ;  and 
'  excandescentia  '  at  any  rate  resting  on  the  same 
image.  *  To  loathe  '  is  properly  to  feel  nausea,  the 
turning  of  the  stomach  at  that  which  excites  first  nat- 
ural, and  then  by  a  transfer,  moral  disgust.  '  To 
detest '  is  to  beaV  witness  against  something,  to  feel 
ourselves  obliged  to  lift  up  our  voice  and  testimony 
against  it.  *  To  abhor  '  is  to  shrink  shuddering  back, 
as  one  would  from  an  object  of  fear,  a  hissing  serpent 
rising  in  one's  path.  Thus  our  blessed  Lord  '  hated  ' 
to  see  his  Father's  house  profaned,  when,  the  zeal  of 
that  house  consuming  Him,  He  drove  forth  in  anger 
the  profaners  from  it  (John  ii.  15);  He  'loathed' 
the  lukewarmness  of  the  Laodiceans,  when  He  threat- 
ened to  spue  them  out  of  His  mouth  (Rev.  iii.  16)  ; 
He  *  detested  '  the  hypocrisy  of  the  Pharisees  and 
Scribes,  when  He  proclaimed  their  sin,  and  utteipch 
those  eight  woes  against  them   (Matt,   xxiii.)  ;    He 


GENUINE  AND   AUTHENTIC.  305 

*  abhorred  '  the  evil  suggestions  of  Satan,  when  He 
bade  the  Tempter  to  get  behind  Him,  seeking  to  put 
a  distance  between  Himself  and  him  (Matt.  iv.  10). 

Sometimes  words  have  no  right  at  all  to  be  con- 
sidered synonyms,  and  yet  are  continually  used  one 
for  the  other ;  having  through  this  constant  misem- 
ployment  more  need  than  synonyms  themselves  to  be 
discriminated.  Thus,  what  confusion  is  often  made 
between  *  genuine  '  and  '  authentic  '  ;  what  inaccu- 
racy exists  in  their  employment.  And  yet  the  dis- 
tinction is  a  very  plain  one.  A  '  genuine  '  work  is 
one  written  by  the  author  whose  name  it  bears  ;    an 

*  authentic  '  work  is  one  which  relates  truthfully  the 
matters  of  which  it  treats.  For  example,  the  apoc- 
ryphal Gospel  of  St.  Thomas  is  neither  '  genuine  '  nor 
'  authentic'  It  is  not  *  genuine,'  for  St.  Thomas  did 
not  write  it  ;  it  is  not  *  authentic,'  for  its  contents  are 
mainly  fables  and  lies.  The  History  of  the  Alexan- 
dria7i  War,  which  passes  under  Caesar's  name,  is  not 
'  genuine, 'for  he  did  not  write  it ;  it  is  '  authentic,' 
being  in  the  main  a  truthful  record  of  the  events 
which  it  professes  to  relate.  Thiers'  History  of  the 
French  Empire,  on  the  contrary,  is  *  genuine,'  for  he 
is  certainly  the  author,  but  very  far  indeed  from  *  au- 
thentic '  ;  while  Thucydides'  History  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  War  is  *  authentic  '  and  *  genuine'  both. 

You  will  observe  that  in  most  of  the  words  just 
adduced,  I  have  sought  to  refer  their  usage  to  their 
etymologies,  to  follow  the  guidance  of  these,  and  by 
the  same  aid  to  trace  the  lines  of  demarcation  which 
divide  them.  For  I  cannot  but  think  it  an  omission 
in  a   very  instructive   little  volume  upon   synonyms 


306  ON  THE  DISTINCTION  OF  WORDS. 

edited  by  the  late  Archbishop  Whately,  and  a  par« 
tial  diminution  of  its  usefulness,  that  in  the  valuation 
of  words  reference  is  so  seldom  made  to  these,  the 
writer  relying  almost  entirely  on  present  usage,  and 
the  tact  and  instinct  of  a  cultivated  mind  for  the 
appreciation  of  them  aright.  The  accomplished 
author  (or  authoress)  of  this  book  indeed  justifies  this 
omission  on  the  ground  that  a  work  on  synonyms  has 
to  do  with  the  present  relative  value  of  words,  not 
with  their  roots  and  derivations  ;  and  further,  that  a 
reference  to  these  brings  in  often  what  is  only  a  dis- 
turbing force  in  the  process,  tending  to  confuse  rather 
than  to  clear.*  But  while  it  is  quite  true  that  words 
may  often  ride  very  slackly  at  anchor  on  their  ety- 
mologies, may  be  borne  hither  and  thither  by  the 
shifting  tides  and  currents  of  usage,  yet  are  they  for 
the  most  part  still  holden  by  them.  Very  few  have 
broken  away  and  drifted  from  their  moorings  alto- 
gether. A  *  novelist,'  or  writer  of  new  tales  in  the 
present  day,  is  very  different  from  a  *  novelist '  or 
upholder  of  new  theories  in  politics  and  religion,  of 


*  Among  words  whose  etymology  might  mislead  as  to  their  present 
meaning,  the  writer  adduces  'allegiance,'  which  by  usage  signifies 
"the  fidelity  of  the  subject  to  his  prince,"  while  the  etymology  would 
rather  suggest  "conformity  to  law,"  But  whatever  the  derivation  of 
*  liege,'  *  ligantia,'  •  allegiantia,'  *  allegiance,'  and  whether  '  ligare '  is  to 
be  found  in  them  or  no,  it  is  certain  that  *  lex  '  is  not.  Algernon  Sid- 
ney {Discourse  concerning  Government^  c.  iii.  §  36)  falls  into  the  same 
mistake ;  who,  replying  to  some  who  maintained  that  submission  was 
due  to  kings,  even  though  these  should  violate  the  fundamental  laws  of 
the  state,  observes  that  the  very  word  •  allegiance,'  of  which  they  made 
so  much,  refuted  them  j  for  this  was  plainly  *♦  such  an  obedience  as  the 
law  requires.'* 


THE  LATENT  FORCES   OF  WORDS.  307 

two  hundred  years  ago  ;  yet  the  idea  of  newness  is 
common  to  them  both.  A  '  naturahst '  was  once  a  de- 
nier of  revealed  truth,  of  any  but  natural  religion  ;  he 
is  now  an  investigator,  often  a  devout  one,  of  nature 
and  of  her  laws  ;  yet  the  word  has  remained  true  to 
its  etymology  all  the  while.  A  *  methodist '  was 
formerly  a  follower  of  a  certain  *  method '  of  philo- 
sophical induction,  now  of  a  '  method  '  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  religious  duties  ;  but  in  either  case  *  method,' 
or  orderly  progression,  is  the  soul  of  the  word.  Take 
other  words  which  have  changed  or  modified  their 
meaning — *  plantations,'  for  instance,  which  were  once 
colonies  of  men  (and  indeed  we  still  '  plant '  a  colony), 
but  are  now  nurseries  of  young  trees — and  you  will 
find  the  same  to  hold  good.  *  Ecstasy  '  was  madness  ; 
it  is  intense  delight ;  but  has  in  no  wise  thereby 
broken  with  the  meaning  from  which  it  started,  since 
it  is  the  nature  alike  of  this  and  that  to  set  men  out 
of  and  beside  themselves. 

And  even  when  the  fact  is  not  so  obvious  as  in 
these  cases,  the  etymology  of  a  word  exercises  an 
unconscious  influence  upon  its  uses,  oftentimes  makes 
itself  felt  when  least  expected,  so  that  a  word,  after 
seeming  quite  to  have  forgotten,  will  after  longest 
wanderings  return  to  it  again.  And  one  main  art  of 
a  great  poet  or  prose  writer,  who  wishes  to  add 
emphasis  to  his  style,  to  evoke  the  latent  forces  of 
his  native  tongue,  will  very  often  consist  in  recon- 
necting words  by  his  use  of  them  with  their  original 
derivation,  in  not  suffering  them  to  forget  themselves 
and  their  origin,  though  they  would.  How  often  and 
with  what  signal  effect  does  Milton  compel  a  word  to 


308  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

return  to  its  original  source,  "  antiquam  exquirere 
matrem  ;  "  while  yet  how  often  the  fact  that  he  is 
doing   this   passes   even    by   scholars   unobserved.* 

*  Every  one  who  desires,  as  he  reads  Milton,  thoroughly  to  under- 
stand him,  will  do  well  to  be  ever  on  the  watch  for  such  recalling,  upon 
his  part,  of  words  to  their  primitive  sense  ;  and  as  often  as  he  detects, 
to  make  accurate  note  of  it  for  his  own  use,  and,  so  far  as  he  is  a 
teacher,  for  the  use  of  others.  Take  a  few  examples  out  of  many : 
'  afflicted '  (P.  L.  i.  i86)  ;  '  ambition  '  (/».  L.  i.  262;  S.  A.  247); 
'  astonished  '  {P.  L.  i.  266)  ;  '  chaos '  {P.  L.  vi.  55) ;  *  diamond '  (/*. 
L.  vi.  364);    'emblem'  {P  L.  iv.  703);    'empiric'  {P.  L.  v.  440)  ; 

*  engine '  {P.  L.  i.  750) ;  *  entire '  (=  integer,  P.  L.  ix.  292) ; '  exten- 
uate '  {P.  L.  X.  645);  'illustrate'  (P.  L.  v.  739);  'implicit'  {P.  Z. 
vii.  323) ;  *  indorse '  {P.  R.  iii.  329 ) ;  *  infringe  '  (/*,  R.  i.  62) ;  *  man- 
sion' {^Com.  2) ;  'moment'  {P.  L.  x,  45  )  ;  'oblige'  (/l  L.  ix.  980) 
'  person '(Z*.  Z.  x.  156);  'pomp'  (/*.  Z.  viii.  61);  'sagacious'  (/*. 
Z.  X.  281);  'secular'  {S.  A.  1707);  'secure'  {P.  Z.  vi.  638)  ;  'sedi- 
tious' {P.  L.  vi.  152)  ;  'transact  '  (/*.  Z.  vi.  286)  ;  'voluble'  (P.  Z. 
ix.  436).  We  may  note  in  Jeremy  Taylor  a  similar  reduction  of  words 
to  their  origins;  thus,  'insolent'  for  unusual,  'metal'  for  mine,  'irri- 
tation '  for  a  making  vain,  *  extant '  for  standing  out  (applied  to  a  bas- 
relief),    'contrition'    for   bruising  ("  the  contrition  of  the  seipent"), 

*  probable  '  for  worthy  of  approval  ("  z.  probable  doctor  ").  The  author 
of  the  excellent  Lexique  de  la  Langue  de  Corneille  claims  the  same 
merit  for  him  and  for  his  great  contemporaries  or  immediate  successors  ; 
Faire  rendre  aux  mots  tout  ce  qu'ils  peuvent  donner,  en  varier  habile- 
ment  les  acceptions  et  les  nuances,  les  ramener  h.  leur  origine,  les  re- 
tremper  frequemment  k  leur  source  etymologique,  constituait  un  des 
secrets  principaux  des  grands  ecrivains  du  dix-septi^me  si^cle.  It  is 
this  putting  of  old  words  in  a  new  light,  and  in  a  new  use,  though  that 
will  be  often  the  oldest  of  all,  on  which  Horace  sets  so  high  a  store  : 

Dixeris  egi'egie,  notum  si  callida  verbura 
Reddiderit  junctura  novum ; 

and  not  less  Montaigne :  "  The  handling  and  utterance  of  fine  wits  is 
that  which  sets  off  a  language  ;  not  so  much  by  innovating  it,  as  by 
putting  it  to  more  vigorous  and  various  service,  and  by  strainmg,  bend- 


FELICITATE   AND    CONGRATULATE.  309 

And  if  all  this  were  not  so,  yet  the  past  history  of  a 
word,  which  history  must  needs  start  from  its  deriva- 
tion, how  soon  soever  that  may  be  left  behind,  can 
hardly  be  left  out  of  sight,  when  we  are  seeking  to 
ascertain  its  present  value.  What  Barrow  says  is 
quite  true,  that  ''  knowing  the  primitive  meaning  of 
words  can  seldom  or  never  determine  their  meaning 
anywhere,  they  often  in  common  use  declining  from 
it ;  "  but  though  it  cannot  determine,  it  can  as  little 
be  omitted  or  forgotten,  when  this  determination  is 
being  sought.  A  man  may  be  wholly  different  now 
from  what  once  he  was,  yet  not  the  less  to  know  his 
antecedents  is  needful,  before  we  can  ever  perfectly 
understand  his  present  self;  and  the  same  holds 
good  with  us  here. 

There  is  a  moral  gain  which  synonyms  will  some- 
times yield  us,  enabling  us,  as  they  do,  to  say  exactly 
what  we  intend,  without  exaggerating  or  putting 
more  into  our  words  than  we  feel  in  our  hearts, 
allowing  us  to  be  at  once  courteous  and  truthful. 
Such  moral  advantage  there  is,  for  example,  in  the 
choice  which  we  have  between  the  words  '  to  felici- 
tate '  and  '  to  congratulate,'  for  the  expressing  of  our 
sentiments  and  wishes  in  regard  of  the  good  fortune 
that  may  happen  to  others.  To  '  felicitate  '  another 
is  to  wish  him  happiness,  without  affirming  that  his 
happiness  is  also  ours.  Thus,  out  of  that  general 
good-will  with  which  we  ought  to  regard  all,  we  might 
'  felicitate  '  one  almost  a  stranger  to  us  ;  nay,  more,  I 

ing,  and  adapting  it  to  this.  They  do  not  create  words,  but  they  en- 
rich their  own,  and  give  them  weight  and  signification  by  the  uses  they 
put  them  to." 


310  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF   WORDS. 

can  honestly  *  felicitate  '  one  on  his  appointment  to  a 
post,  or  attainment  of  honor,  even  though  I  may  not 
consider  him  the  fittest  to  have  obtained  it,  though  I 
should  have  been  glad  if  another  had  done  so  ;  I  can 
desire  and  hope,  that  is,  that  it  may  bring  all  joy  and 
happiness  to  him.  But  I  could  not,  without  a  viola- 
tion of  truth,  '  congratulate '  him,  or  that  stranger 
whose  prosperity  awoke  no  lively  delight  in  my 
heart ;  for  when  I  *  congratulate  '  a  person  (congrat- 
ulator),  I  declare  that  I  am  sharer  in  his  joy,  that  what 
has  rejoiced  him  has  rejoiced  also  me.  We  have  all,  I 
dare  say,  felt,  even  without  having  analyzed  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  words  that  '  congratulate  '  is  a 
far  heartier  word  than  *  felicitate,'  and  one  with  which 
it  much  better  becomes  us  to  welcome  the  good  for- 
tune of  a  friend  ;  and  the  analysis,  as  you  perceive, 
perfectly  justifies  the  feeling.  *  Felicitations  '  are  lit- 
tle better  than  compliments  ;  *  congratulations  '  are 
the  expression  of  a  genuine  sympathy  and  joy. 

Let  me  illustrate  the  importance  of  synonymous 
distinctions  by  another  example,  by  the  words,  '  to 
invent '  and  *  to  discover  '  ;  or  *  invention  '  and  '  dis- 
covery.' How  slight  may  seem  to  us  the  distinction 
between  them,  even  if  we  see  any  at  all.  Yet  try 
them  a  little  closer,  try  them,  which  is  the  true  proof, 
by  aid  of  examples,  and  you  will  perceive  that  they 
can  by  no  means  be  indifferently  used  ;  that,  on  the 
contrary,  a  great  truth  lies  at  the  root  of  their  dis- 
tinction. Thus  we  speak  of  the  '  invention  '  of  print- 
ing, of  the  '  discovery  '  of  America.  Shift  these 
words,  and  speak,  for  instance,  of  the  '  invention  '  of 
America ;  you  feel  at  once  how  unsuitable  the  Ian- 


INVENT  AND   DISCOVER.  311 

guage  is.  And  why  ?  Because  Columbus  did  not 
make  that  to  be,  which  before  him  had  not  been. 
America  was  there,  before  he  revealed  it  to  Euro- 
pean eyes  ;  but  that  which  before  was  he  showed  to 
be  ;  he  withdrew  the  veil  which  hitherto  had  con- 
cealed it  ;  he  *  discovered '  it.  So  too  we  speak  of 
Newton  '  discovering '  the  law  of  gravitation  :  he 
drew  aside  the  veil  whereby  men's  eyes  were  hin- 
dered from  perceiving  it,  but  the  law  had  existed 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world,  and  would  have 
existed  whether  he  or  any  other  man  had  traced  it  or 
no  ;  neither  was  it  in  any  way  affected  by  the  discov- 
ery of  it  which  he  had  made.  But  Gutenberg,  or 
whoever  else  it  may  be  to  whom  the  honor  belongs, 

*  invented '  printing  ;  he  made  something  to  be,  which 
hitherto  was  not.  In  like  manner  Harvey  *  discov- 
ered '  the  circulation  of  the  blood  ;  but  Watt  '  in- 
vented '  the  steam  engine  ;  and  we  speak,  with  a  true 
distinction,  of  the  *  inventions'  of  Art,  the  '  discover- 
ies '  of  Science.  In  the  very  highest  matters  of  all,  it 
is  deeply  important  that  we  be  aware  of  and  observe 
the  distinction.     In   religion  there  have  been  many 

*  discoveries,'  but  (in  true  religion  I  mean)  no  *  inven- 
tions.' Many  discoveries — but  God  in  each  case  the 
discoverer ;  He  draws  away  the  veils,  one  veil  after 
another,  that  have  hidden  Him  from  men  ;  the  dis- 
covery or  revelation  is  from  Himself,  for  no  man  by 
searching  has  found  out  God  ;  and  therefore,  wherever 
anything  offers  itself  as  an  *  invention '  in  matters  of 
religion,  it  proclaims  itself  a  lie, — as  are  all  self- 
devised  worships,  all  religions  which  man  projects 
from  his  own  heart.     Just  that  is  known  of  God  which 


312  ON  THE  DISTINCTION  OF   WORDS. 

He  is  pleased  to  make  known,  and  no  more ;  and 
men's  recognizing  or  refusing  to  recognize  in  no  way 
afifects  it.  They  may  deny  or  may  acknowledge  Him, 
but  He  continues  the  same. 

As  involving  in  like  manner  a  distinction  which 
cannot  safely  be  lost  sight  of,  how  important  the 
difference,  whose  existence  is  asserted  by  our  pos- 
session of  the  two  words,  '  to  apprehend  '  and  *  to 
comprehend,'  with  their  substantives  *  apprehension  ' 
and  ^comprehension.'  For  indeed  we  'apprehend' 
many  truths,  which  we  do  not  *  comprehend.'  The 
great  mysteries  of  our  faith — the  doctrine,  for  instance, 
of  the  Holy  Trinity,  we  lay  hold  upon  it,  we  hang  on 
it,  our  souls  live  by  it  ;  but  we  do  not  '  ^^;;^prehend ' 
it,  that  is,  we  do  not  take  it  all  in  ;  for  it  is  a  neces- 
sary attribute  of  God  that  He  is  incomprehensible ;  if 
He  were  not  so,  either  He  would  not  be  God,  or  the 
being  that  comprehended  Him  would  be  God  also 
(Matt.  xi.  27).  But  it  also  belongs  to  the  idea  of  God 
that  He  may  be  '  ^/prehended,'  though  not  *  ^^;;/pre- 
hended,'  by  his  reasonable  creatures  ;  He  has  made 
them  to  know  Him,  though  not  to  know  Him  all^  to 

*  <^/>prehend,'  though  not  to  *  ^^;«prehend  '  Him.  We 
may  transfer  with  profit  the  same  distinction  to  mat- 
ters not  quite  so  solemn.  Thus  I  read  Goldsmith's 
Traveller,  or  one  of  Gay's  Fables,  and  I  feel  that  I 

*  comprehend '  it ; — I  do  not  believe,  that  is,  that 
there  was  anything  stirring  in  the  poet's  mind  or  in- 
tention, which  I  have  not  in  the  reading  reproduced 
in  my  own.  But  I  read  Hamlet,  or  King  Lear  :  here 
I  '  apprehend  '  much  ;  I  have  wondrous  glimpses  of 
the  poet's  intention  and  aim  ;  but  I   do  not  for  an 


OPPOSITE   AND    CONTRARY.  313 

instant  suppose  that  I  have  '  comprehended/  taken 
in,  that  is,  all  that  was  in  his  mind  in  the  writing  ;  or 
that  his  purpose  does  not  stretch  in  manifold  direc- 
tions far  beyond  the  range  of  my  vision  ;  and  I  am 
sure  there  are  few  who  would  not  shrink  from  affirm- 
ing, at  least  if  they  at  all  realized  the  force  of  the 
words  they  were  using,  that  they  *  comprehended  ' 
Shakespeare  ;  however  much  they  may  '  apprehend  ' 
in  him. 

How  often  *  opposite  '  and  '  contrary '  are  used  as 
if  there  was  no  difference  between  them,  and  yet  there 
is  a  most  essential  one,  one  which  perhaps  we  may  best 
express  by  saying  that  *  opposites  '  complete,  while 
*  contraries '  exclude  one  another.  Thus  the  most 
'  opposite  '  moral  or  mental  characteristics  may  meet 
in  one  and  the  same  person,  while  to  say  that  the 
most  '  contrary '  did  so,  would  be  manifestly  absurd  ; 
for  example,  a  soldier  may  be  at  once  prudent  and 
bold,  for  these  are  opposites  ;  he  could  not  be  at 
once  prudent  and  rash,  for  these  are  contraries.  We 
may  love  and  fear  at  the  same  time  and  the  same 
person  ;  we  pray  in  the  Litany  that  we  may  love  and 
dread  God,  the  two  being  opposites,  and  thus  the 
complements  of  one  another ;  but  to  pray  that  we 
might  love  and  hate  would  be  as  illogical  as  it  would 
be  impious,  for  these  are  contraries,  and  could  no 
more  coexist  together  than  white  and  black,  hot  and 
cold,  in  the  same  subject  at  the  same  time.  Or  to 
take  another  illustration,  sweet  and  sour  are  *  oppo- 
sites,' sweet  and  bitter  are  *  contraries.'*     It  will  be 


*  See  Coleridge,  Church  and  State ^  p.  18. 
14 


314  ON  THE  DISTINCTION  OF  WORDS. 

seen  then  that  there  is  always  a  certain  relation  be- 
tween *  opposites  '  ;  they  unfold  themselves  though  in 
different  directions  from  the  same  root,  as  the  posi- 
tive and  negative  forces  of  electricity,  and  in  their 
very  opposition  uphold  and  sustain  one  another ; 
while  *  contraries  '  encounter  one  another  from  quar- 
ters quite  diverse,  and  one  only  subsists  in  the  exact 
degree  that  it  puts  out  of  working  the  other.  Surely 
this  distinction  cannot  be  an  unimportant  one  either 
in  the  region  of  ethics  or  elsewhere. 

It  will  happen  continually,  that  rightly  to  distin- 
guish between  two  words  will  throw  a  flood  of  light 
upon  some  controversy  in  which  they  play  a  princi- 
pal part,  nay,  may  virtually  put  an  end  to  that  con- 
troversy altogether.  Thus  when  Hobbes,  with  a  true 
instinct,  would  have  laid  deep  the  foundations  of 
atheism  and  despotism  together,  resolving  all  right 
into  might,  and  not  merely  robbing  men,  if  he  could, 
of  the  power,  but  denying  to  them  the  duty,  of  obey- 
ing God  rather  than  man,  his  sophisms  could  stand 
only  so  long  as  it  was  not  perceived  that  *  compul- 
sion'  and  obligation,  with  which  he  juggled,  con- 
veyed two  ideas  perfectly  distinct,  indeed  disparate, 
in  kind.  Those  sophisms  of  his  collapsed  at  once,  so 
soon  as  it  was  perceived  that  what  pertained  to  one 
had  been  transferred  to  the  other  by  a  mere  confusion 
of  terms  and  cunning  sleight  of  hand,  the  former 
being  d.  physical y  the  latter  a  moral,  necessity. 

There  is  indeed  no  such  fruitful  source  of  confusion 
and  mischief  as  this — two  words  are  tacitly  assumed 
as  equivalent,  and  therefore  exchangeable,  and  then 
that  which  may  be  assumed,  and  with  truth,  of  one, 


INSTRUCTION  AND   EDUCATION.  31$ 

is  assumed  also  of  the  other,  of  which  it  is  not  true. 
Thus,  for  instance,  it  often  is  with  '  instruction '  and 
*  education.'  Cannot  we  'instruct'  a  child,  it  is 
asked,  cannot  we  teach  it  geography,  or  arithmetic, 
or  grammar,  quite  independently  of  the  Catechism, 
or  even  of  the  Scriptures  ?  No  doubt  you  may  ;  but 
can  you  '  educate,'  without  bringing  moral  and  spir- 
itual forces  to  bear  upon  the  mind  and  affections 
of  the  child  ?  And  you  must  not  be  permitted  to 
transfer  the  admissions  which  we  freely  make  in 
regard  of  *  instruction,'  as  though  they  also  held 
good  in  respect  of  '  education.'  For  what  is  *  educa- 
tion '  ?  Is  it  a  furnishing  of  a  man  from  without 
with  knowledge  and  facts  and  information  ?  or  is  it  a 
drawing  forth  from  within  and  a  training  of  the  spirit, 
of  the  true  humanity  which  is  latent  in  him  ?  Is  the 
process  of  education  the  filling  of  the  child's  mind,  as 
a  cistern  is  filled  with  waters  brought  in  buckets  from 
some  other  source  ?  or  the  opening  up  for  that  child 
of  fountains  which  are  already  there  ?  Now  if  we 
give  any  heed  to  the  word  '  education,'  and  to 
the  voice  which  speaks  therein,  we  shall  not  long  be 
in  doubt.  Education  must  educe,  being  from  *  edu- 
care,'  which  is  but  another  form  of  *  educere  '  ;  and 
that  is  to  draw  out,  and  not  to  put  in.  *  To  draw 
out '  what  is  in  the  child,  the  immortal  spirit  which  is 
there,  this  is  the  end  of  education  ;  and  so  much  the 
word  declares.  The  putting  in  is  indeed  most  need- 
ful, that  is,  the  child  must  be  instructed  as  well 
as  educated,  and  *  instruction  '  means  furnishing  ; 
but  not  instructed  instead  of  educated.  He  must  first 
have  powers  awakened  in  him,  measures  of  value 


3l6  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

given  him  ;  and  then  he  will  know  how  to  deal  with 
the  facts  of  this  outward  world  ;  then  instruction 
in  these  will  profit  him  ;  but  not  without  the  higher 
training,  still  less  as  a  substitute  for  it. 

It  has  occasionally  happened  that  the  question 
which  out  of  two  apparent  synonyms  should  be 
adopted  in  some  important  state-document  has  been 
debated  with  no  little  earnestness  and  vigor  ;  as  at 
the  Great  English  Revolution  of  1688,  when  the  two 
Houses  of  Parliament  were  at  issue  whether  it  should 
be  declared  of  James  II.  that  he  had  *  abdicated,'  or 
*  deserted,'  the  throne.  This  might  seem  at  first 
sight  a  mere  strife  about  words,  and  yet,  in  reality, 
serious  constitutional  questions  were  involved  in  the 
debate.  The  Commons  insisted  on  the  word  *  abdi- 
cated,' not  as  wishing  to  imply  that  in  any  act  of  the 
late  king  there  had  been  an  official  renunciation 
of  the  crown,  which  would  have  been  manifestly 
untrue  ;  but  because  *  abdicated  '  in  their  minds 
alone  expressed  the  fact  that  James  had  so  borne 
himself  as  virtually  to  have  entirely  renounced,  dis- 
owned, and  relinquished  the  crown,  to  have  irrecov- 
erably forfeited  and  separated  himself  from  it,  and 
from  any  right  to  it  forever  ;  while  '  deserted  '  would 
have  seemed  to  leave  room  and  an  opening  for  a 
return,  which  they  were  determined  to  declare  for- 
ever excluded  ;  as  were  it  said  of  a  husband  that 
he  had  '  deserted '  his  wife,  or  of  a  soldier  that 
he  had  *  deserted  '  his  colors,  this  language  would 
imply  not  only  that  he  might,  but  that  he  was  bound 
to  return.  The  speech  of  Lord  Somers  on  the  occa- 
sion is  a  masterly  specimen  of  synonymous  discrim- 


CICERO'S   USE  OF  SYNONYMS.  3 1/ 

ination,  and  an  example  of  the  uses  in  highest  mat- 
ters of  state  to  which  it  may  be  turned.  As  Httle 
was  it  a  mere  strife  about  words  when,  at  the  restor- 
ation a  good  many  years  ago  of  our  interrupted 
relations  with  Persia,  Lord  Palmerston  insisted  that 
the  Shah  should  address  the  Queen  of  England  not 
as  *  Maleketh  '  but  as  '  Padischah,'  refusing  to  receive 
letters  which  wanted  this  superscription. 

Let  me  press  upon  you,  in  conclusion,  some  few 
of  the  many  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  habit  of 
distinguishing  synonyms.  These  advantages  we  might 
presume  to  be  many,  even  though  we  could  not  our- 
selves perceive  them  ;  for  how  often  do  the  great 
masters  of  style  in  every  tongue,  perhaps  none  so 
often  as  Cicero,  the  greatest  of  all,*  pause  to  discrim- 

*  Thus  he  distinguishes  between  *  voluntas '  and  *  cupiditas ' ;  *  cautio  ' 
and  *metus'  {Ttisc.  iv.  6) ;  'gaudium,'  'Isetitia,'  *  voluptas '  [Tusc.  iv. 
6  ;  Fin.  ii.  4) ;  '  prudentia '  and  *  sapientia '  ( Off.  i.  43)  ;  '  caritas '  and 
^ixm.ox''  {De  Part.    Or.  2$)  ;  'ebrius'and  'ebriosus,'  'iracundus'  and 

*  iratus,'  'anxietas'  and  *angor  '  (Tusc.  iv.  12)  ;  '  vitium,'  'morbus,'  and 

*  segrotatio  '  ( Tusc.  iv.  13} ;  *  labor  '  and  *  dolor '  ( Tzisc.  ii,  15) ;  *  furor ' 
and  'insania'  {Tusc.  iii.  5);  *malitia'  and  *  vitiositas '  {Tusc.  iv.  15) ; 
*doctus'  and  'peritus'  {Off.  i.  3).  Quintilian  also  often  bestows 
attention  on  synonyms,  observing  well  (vi.  3.  17);  *Pluribus  nomini- 
bus  in  eadem  re  vulgo  utimur ;  quae  tamen  si  diducas,  suam  quandam 
propriam  vim  ostendent  ; '  he  adduces  *  salsum,'  *  urbanum,'  '  facetum  '  ; 
and  elsewhere  (v.  3)  'rumor'  and  'fama'  are  discriminated  happily  by 
him.  Among  Church  writers  Augustine  is  a  frequent  and  successful 
discriminator  of  words.  Thus  he  separates  off  from  one  another  *  flagi- 
tium  '  and  *  facinus '  {De  Doct.  Christ,  iii.  10)  ;  *  oemulatio  '  and  '  in- 
vidia '  {Expl.  ad  Gal.  x.  20)  ;  *  arrha '  and  *  pignus  '  {Serm.  23.  8,  9) ; 

*  studiosus '  and  *  curiosus '  {De  Util.  Cred.  9) ;  *  sapientia  '  and  '  scien- 
tia '  {De  Div.  Quces.  2,  qu.  2)  ;  *  senecta '  and  '  senium  '  {Enarr.  in  Ps. 
70.  18)  ;  'schisma'  and  'hseresis'  {Con.  Cresc.  2.  7)  ;  with  many  more 
(see  my  Augustine  on  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.,  p.  27).     Among  the 


3l8  ON   THE   DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS 

inate  between  the  words  they  are  using ;  how  much 
care  and  labor,  how  much  subtlety  of  thought,  they 
have  counted  well  bestowed  on  the  operation  ;  how 
much  importance  do  they  avowedly  attach  to  it ;  not 
to  say  that  their  works,  even  where  they  do  not 
intend  it,  will  afford  a  continual  lesson  in  this  respect : 
a  great  writer  merely  in  the  precision  and  accuracy 
with  which  he  employs  words  will  always  be  exercis- 
ing us  in  synonymous  distinction.  But  the  advan- 
tages of  attending  to  synonyms  need  not  be  taken  on 
trust  ;  they  are  evident.  How  large  a  part  of  true 
wisdom  it  is  to  be  able  to  distinguish  between  things 
that  differ,  things  seemingly,  but  not  really,  alike,  is 
very  remarkably  attested  by  our  words  '  discernment  * 
and  '  discretion  *  ;  which  are  now  used  as  equivalent, 
the  first  to  '  insight,'  the  second  to  *  prudence  '  ;  while 
yet  in  their  earlier  usage,  and  according  to  their 
etymology,  being  both  from  *  discerno,'  they  signify 
the  power  of  so  seeing  things  that  in  the  seeing  we 
distinguish  and  separate  them  one  from  another.* 
Such  were  originally  '  discernment '  and  *  discretion,* 
and  such  in  great  measure  they  are  still.  And  in 
words  is  a  material  ever  at  hand  on  which  to  train  the 
spirit  to  a  skilfulness  in  this  ;  on  which  to  exercise 

merits  of  the  Grimms'  German  Dictionary  is  the  care  which  they  and 
those  who  have  taken  up  their  work  bestow  on  the  discrimination  of 
synonyms,   as  between  •  degen  '  and  *  schwert ' ;  *  felde,*   '  acker '  and 

*  heide ' ;  *  aar '  and  *  adler '  ;  *  antlitz '  and  *  angesicht ' ;  *  kelch,* 
*becher'  and  'glas';    •  frau '  and  *weib';  *  butter,'   'schmalz'  and 

*  anke ' ;  *  kopf '  and  *  haupt '  ;  *  klug '  and  ♦  weise ; '  *  geben  '  and 
*schenken,' 

^  *  L'esprit  consiste  \  connaitre  la  ressemblance  des  choses  diverses,  et 
la  difference  des  choses  semblables  (Montesquieu). 


INSTRUCTIVENESS   OF   SYNONYMS.  319 

its  sagacity  through  the  habit  of  distinguishing  there 
where  it  would  be  so  easy  to  confound.*  Nor  is  this 
habit  of  discrimination  only  valuable  as  a  part  of  our 
intellectual  training  ;  but  what  a  positive  increase  is 
it  of  mental  wealth  when  we  have  learned  to  discern 
between  things  which  really  differ,  however  they  have 
been  hitherto  confused  in  our  minds  ;  and  have  made 
these  distinctions  permanently  our  own  in  the  only 
way  by  which  they  can  be  made  secure,  that  is,  by 
assigning  to  each  its  appropriate  word  and  peculiar 
sign. 

In  the  effort  to  trace  lines  of  demarcation  you  may 
little  by  little  be  drawn  into  the  heart  of  subjects  the 
most  instructive  ;  for  only  as  you  have  thoroughly 
mastered  a  subject,  and  all  which  is  most  characteristic 
about  it,  can  you  hope  to  trace  these  lines  with  accu- 
racy and  success.    Thus  a  Roman  of  the  higher  classes 

*  I  will  suggest  here  a  few  pairs  or  larger  groups  of  words  on  which 
those  who  are  willing  to  exercise  themselves  in  the  distinction  of 
synonyms  might  perhaps  profitably  exercise  their  skill : — '  fame,'  'popu- 
larity,' 'celebrity,'  'reputation,'  'renown'; — 'misfortune,'  'calamity,' 
'disaster'; — 'impediment,'  'obstruction,'  'obstacle,'  'hindrance'; — 
'temerity,'  'audacity,'  'boldness'; — 'rebuke,'  *  reprimand,' '  censure,' 

*  blame  ' ; — '  adversaiy,'  '  opponent,'  *  antagonist,'  '  enemy ' ; — '  rival,' 
'competitor'  ; — 'affluence,'  '  opulence,'  'abundance,'  'redundance'  ; 
—'conduct,'  'behavior,'  'demeanor,'  'bearing'  ; — 'execration,'  'male- 
diction,' 'imprecation,'  'anathema'; — 'avaricious,'  'covetous,'  '  mi- 
serly,' '  niggardly  ' ; — '  hypothesis,'  '  theory,'  '  system  '  (See  De  Quin- 
cey,  Lit.  Rem.  American  ed.  p.  229)  ; — '  masculine,'  '  manly  '  ; — 'effem- 
inate,' 'feminine'; — 'womanly,  'womanish'; — 'malicious,'  'malig- 
nant '  ; — '  savage,'  '  barbarous,'  '  fierce,'   '  cruel,'  '  inhuman '  ; — '  low,' 

*  mean,'  '  abject,'  *  base '  ; — '  to  chasten,'  *  to  punish,'  '  to  chastise  ' ; — 
*to  exile,'  'to  banish';  — 'to  declare,'  'to  disclose,'  to  'reveal,'  'to 
divulge'  ; — 'to  defend,'  'to  protect,'  'to  shelter'; — 'to  excuse,'  'to 
palliate  ' ; — '  to  compel,'  '  to  coerce,'  '  to  constrain,'  *  to  force.' 


320  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

might   bear    four   names  ;     *  praenofnen/    *  nomen/ 

*  cognomen,'  *  agnomen  ;  "  almost  always  bore  three. 
You  will  know  something  of  the  political  and  family- 
life  of  Rome  when  you  can  tell  the  exact  story  of  each 
of  these,  and  the  precise  difference  between  them. 
He  will  not  be  altogether  ignorant  of  the  middle  ages 
and  of  the  clamps  which  in  those  ages  bound  society 
together,  who  has  learned  thoroughly  to  distinguish 
between  a  *  fief*  and  a  *  benefice.'  He  will  have  ob- 
tained a  firm  grasp  on  some  central  facts  of  theology 
who  can    exactly  draw  out  the  distinction    between 

*  reconciliation,'  *  propitiation,'  *  atonement,'  as  used 
in  the  New  Testament ;  of  Church  History,  who  can 
trace  the  difference  between  a  *  schism  '  and  a  *  heresy.' 
One  who  has  learned  to  discriminate  between  *  detrac- 
tion '  and  *  slander,'  as  Barrow  has  done  before  him,* 
or  between  *  emulation  '  and  *  envy,'  in  which  South  has 
excellently  shown  him  the  way,f  or  between  *  avarice  * 
and  '  covetousness,'  as  Cowley,  will  have  made  no 
unprofitable  excursion  into  the  region  of  ethics. 

How  effectual  a  help,  moreover,  will  it  prove  to  the 
writing  of  a  good  English  style,  if  instead  of  choosing 
almost  at  hap-hazard  from  a  group  of  words  which 
seem  to  us  one  about  as  fit  for  our  purpose  as  another, 
we  at  once  know  which,  and  which  only,  we  ought  in 
the  case  before  us  to  employ,  which  will  prove  the 
exact  vesture  of  our  thoughts.     It  is  the  first  charac- 

*  **  Slander  involveth  an  imputation  of  falsehood,  but  detraction  may 
be  couched  in  truth,  and  clothed  in  fair  language.  It  is  a  poison  often 
infused  in  sweet  liquor,  and  ministered  in  a  golden  cup." 

f  Sermons^  ^lZ7->  vol.  v.  p.  403.  His  words  are  quoted  in  my 
Select  Glossary^  s.  v.  *  Emulation.* 


WORDS   LEFT   UNEMPLOYED.  321 

teristic  of  a  well-dressed  man  that  his  clothes  fit  him  : 
they  are  not  too  small  and  shrunken  here,  too  large  and 
loose  there.  Now  it  is  precisely  such  a  prime  char- 
acteristic of  a  good  style  that  the  words  fit  close  to 
the  thoughts.  They  will  not  be  too  big  here,  hang- 
ing like  a  giant's  robe  on  the  Hmbs  of  a  dwarf ;  nor 
too  small  there,  as  a  boy's  garment  into  which  the 
man  has  painfully  and  ridiculously  thrust  himself. 
You  do  not,  as  you  read,  feel  in  one  place  that  the 
writer  means  more  than  he  has  succeeded  in  saying  ; 
in  another  that  he  has  said  more  than  he  means  ;  in 
a  third  something  beside  what  his  precise  intention 
was  ;  in  a  fourth  that  he  has  failed  to  convey  any 
meaning  at  all  ;  and  all  this  from  a  lack  of  skill  in 
employing  the  instrument  of  language,  of  precision  in 
knowing  what  words  would  be  the  exactest  corre- 
spondents and  fittest  exponents  of  thoughts.* 

What  a  wealth  of  words  in  almost  every  language 
lies  inert  and  unemployed  ;  and  certainly  not  least  in 
our  own.  How  much  of  what  might  be  as  current 
coin  among  us,  is  shut  up  in  the  treasure-house  of  a 
few  classical  authors,  or  is  never  to  be  met  at  all  but 
in  the  pages  of  the  dictionary,  we  meanwhile  in  the 
midst  of  all  this  riches  adjudging  ourselves  to  a  volun- 
tary poverty  ;  and  often,  with  tasks  the  most  delicate 
and  difficult  to  accomplish, — for  surely  the  clothing  of 

*  La  proprifete  des  termes  est  le  caractere  distinctif  des  grands  ecri- 
vains  ;  c'est  par  la  que  leur  style  est  toujours  au  niveau  de  leur  sujet ; 
c'est  a  cette  qualite  qu'on  recounait  le  vrai  talent  d'ecrire,  et  non  a 
I'ait  futile  de  deguiser  par  un  vain  colons  les  idees  communes.  So 
D'Alembert ;  but  Caesar  long  before  had  said,  Delectus  verborum,  elo* 
quentise  origo. 

14* 


322  ON   THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

thought  in  its  most  appropriate  garment  of  words  is 
such, — needlessly  depriving  ourselves  of  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  helps  at  our  command  ;  like  some  workman 
who,  being  furnished  for  an  operation  that  will  chal- 
lenge all  his  skill  with  a  dozen  different  tools,  each 
adapted  for  its  own  special  purpose,  should  in  his  in- 
dolence and  self-conceit  persist  in  using  only  one  ;  do- 
ing coarsely  what  might  have  been  done  finely  ;  or 
leaving  altogether  undone  that  which,  with  such  assist- 
ances, was  quite  within  his  reach.  And  thus  it 
comes  to  pass  that  in  the  common  intercourse  of  life, 
often  too  in  books,  a  certain  limited  number  of  words 
are  worked  almost  to  death,  employed  in  season  and 
out  of  season — a  vast  multitude  meanwhile  being 
rarely,  if  at  all,  called  to  render  the  service  which 
they  could  render  far  better  than  any  other;  so 
rarely,  that  little  by  little  they  slip  out  of  sight  and 
are  forgotten  altogether.  And  then,  perhaps,  at 
some  later  day,  when  their  want  is  felt,  the  ignorance 
into  which  we  have  allowed  ourselves  to  fall,  of  the 
resources  offered  by  the  language  to  satisfy  such  new 
demands  as  may  be  made  upon  it,  sends  us  abroad  in 
search  of  outlandish  substitutes  for  words  which  we 
already  possess  at  home.* 

And  let  us  not  suppose  the  power  of  exactly  say- 
ing what  we  mean,  and  neither  more  nor  less  than  we 
mean,  to  be  merely  a  graceful  mental  accomplish- 
ment. It  is  indeed  this,  and  perhaps  there  is  no 
power  so  surely  indicative  of  a  high  and  accurate 

*  Thus  I  observe  in  modern  French  the  barbarous  '  derailler,'  to  get 
off  the  rail ;  and  this  while  it  only  needed  to  recall  ♦  dirayer '  from  the 
oblivion  into  which  it  had  been  allowed  to  fall. 


TRUTH  AND   FALSEHOOD   OF  WORDS.  323 

training  of  the  intellectual  faculties.  But  it  is  much 
more  than  this  :  it  has  a  moral  value  as  well.  It 
is  nearly  allied  to  moraUty,  inasmuch  as  it  is  nearly 
connected  with  truthfulness.  Every  man  who  has 
himself  in  any  degree  cared  for  the  truth,  and  occu- 
pied himself  in  seeking  it,  is  more  or  less  aware  how 
much  of  the  falsehood  in  the  world  passes  current 
under  the  concealment  of  words,  how  many  strifes 
and  controversies, 

'  Which  feed  the  simple,  and  offend  the  wise,' 

find  all  or  nearly  all  the  fuel  that  maintains  them  in 
words  carelessly  or  dishonestly  employed.  And 
when  a  man  has  had  any  actual  experience  of  this, 
and  at  all  perceived  how  far  this  mischief  reaches,  he 
is  sometimes  almost  tempted  to  say  with  Shakspeare, 
*  Out,  idle  words,  servants  to  shallow  fools  *  ;  to 
adopt  the  saying  of  his  clown,  '  Words  are  grown  so 
false  I  am  loath  to  prove  reason  with  them.'  He 
cannot,  however,  forego  their  employment ;  not  to 
say  that  he  will  presently  perceive  that  this  falseness 
of  theirs  whereof  he  accuses  them,  this  cheating 
power,  is  not  of  their  proper  use,  but  only  of  their 
abuse  ;  he  will  see  that,  however  they  may  have  been 
enhsted  in  the  service  of  lies,  they  are  yet  of  them- 
selves most  true  ;  and  that,  where  the  bane  is,  there 
the  antidote  should  be  sought  as  well.  If  Goethe's 
Faust  denounces  words  and  the  falsehood  of  words, 
it  is  by  the  aid  of  words  that  he  does  it.  Ask  then 
words  what  they  mean,  that  you  may  deliver  your- 
selves, that  you  may  help  to  deliver  others,  from  the 


324  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

tyranny  of  words,  and,  to  use  Baxter's  excellent 
phrase,  from  the  strife  of '  word-warriors.'  Learn  to 
distinguish  between  them,  for  you  have  the  authority 
of  Hooker,  that  *  the  mixture  of  those  things  by 
speech,  which  by  nature  are  divided,  is  the  mother 
of  all  error.'  *  And  although  I  cannot  promise  you 
that  the  study  of  synonyms,  or  the  acquaintance 
with  derivations,  or  any  other  knowledge  but  the 
very  highest  knowledge  of  all,  will  deHver  you  from 
the  temptation  to  misuse  this  or  any  other  gift 
of  God — a  temptation  which  always  lies  so  near  us — 
yet  I  am  sure  that  these  studies,  rightly  pursued,  will 
do  much  in  leading  us  to  stand  in  awe  of  this 
gift  of  speech,  and  to  tremble  at  the  thought  of  turn- 
ing it  to  any  other  than  those  worthy  ends  for  which 
God  has  endowed  us  with  a  faculty  so  divine. 

*  See  on  all  this  matter  in  Locke's  Essay  on  Human  Understandings 
chapters  9,  10  and  1 1  of  the  3d  book,  certainly  the  most  remarkable 
in  the  Essay,  On  the  Imperfection  of  Words,  Of  the  Abuse  of  Words, 
Of  the  Remedies  of  the  Imperfection  and  Abuse  of  Words. 


BLACKBOARD    EXERCISES. 

LECTURE  VI. 
ON  THE  DISTINCTION  OF  WORDS. 


EXERCISE  No.  I. 
DEFINITION  AND  DESCRIPTION  OF  SYNONYMS. 

I.  Definition  and  discussion  of  synonyms. 

1.  Synonyms  defined. 

2.  "  Synonym  "  and  "  synonymous"  misnomers. 

3.  Ordinary  use  of  these  terms. 

4.  Words  never  exactly  synonymous. 

5.  Opinion  of  Bentley. 

6.  Words  the  enclosures  of  thought. 

7.  Nations  draw  different  lines. 

II.  Difficulties  caused  by  synonyms. 

1.  Losses  involved  in  translation. 

2.  Translation  of  Holy  Scripture. 

3.  Perplexity  of  missionary  translators. 

{a.)  In  China. 
(d.)  At  the  Reformation. 
III.  Synonyms  described. 

1 .  Not  absolutely  identical. 

2.  Not  remotely  similar. 

3.  More  or  less  liaMe  to  confusion. 

4.  But  not  to  be  confounded. 


326  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

IV.  Causes  of  synonyms. 

1.  Union  of  dialects. 

#  {a.)  Langue  d''Oc. 

{p.)  Langue  (V  Oil. 

2.  Different  forms  of  the  same  word. 

{a)  "  Serpo  "  and  "  repo." 
{b.)  "  Puteo  "  and  "  foeteo." 
(<:.)  "  Odem  "  and  "  athem." 

3.  Conquest. 

4.  Preference. 

{a)  "  Electrum." 
{d,)   ''Trick." 
(V.)  "  Device." 
(d.)  ^'  Finesse." 
(e.)  ''  Artifice." 
(/.)  "  Stratagem." 


EXERCISE  No.  II. 
EXPANSION  AND  CONTRACTION  OF  LANGUAGE. 

I.  Desynonymizing. 

1.  A  complex  state  of  society  causes  retrenchment. 

2.  Scantness    and   straitness    correct  each  other ; 

ovaUi  and  vrrocrTaixis. 

3.  Words  find  their  peculiar  domain. 

4.  Language  purifies  itself. 

5.  Single  writers  assist  it. 

(a.)  Wordsworth's  use  of"  imagination." 
{d.)  Milton's  use  of  "  fancy." 
(c.)  In  Wiclifs  time:  "  famine  "  and  "  hunger." 
(d.)  Other    pairs    of  words:    "clarify"   and 
"  glorify,"  etc. 
II.  Discrimination. 

1 .  Many  words  waiting  for  it. 

2.  Coleridge's  testimony. 

3.  Ethical  gain  of  discrimination. 

(a,)  "  Vengeance  "  and  "  revenge." 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  32/ 

III.  English  and  Latin  duplicates. 

1.  Substantives,  ''shepherd,"  etc. 

2.  Verbs,  "  to  whiten,"  etc. 

3.  Adjectives,  ''  shady,"  etc. 

4.  Single   substantives    and   duplicate    adjectives  : 

**  burdensome,"  "  onerous,"  etc. 


EXERCISE   No.    III. 
VERBAL  DISTINCTIONS. 

I.  Acquired  distinctions. 

1.  Words  hold  their  places  by  becoming  distinct. 

(a.)  "  Shepherd  "  and  "  pastor." 
{d.)  "  Love"  and  "  charity,"  etc. 

2.  Difference  of  stock  a  help,  but  not  essential. 

{a.)  "  Astronomy"  and  "  astrology." 
{d.)  "  Despair"  and  ''  diffidence." 
{c.)  "  Interference"  and  "  interposition." 
(d.)  "  Yes— yea  "  and  "  nay— no." 
II.  Fundamental  distinctions. 

I.  ''Arrogant,"  "  presumptuous,"  and  "  insolent." 
2    "  Hate,"  "  loathe,"  "  detest,"  and  "  abhor." 
III.  Improper  distinctions. 

I.  "  Genuine  "  and  "  authentic." 
IV   Recent  distinctions. 

1.  Misleading  etymologies  :  "  allegiance." 

2.  Common  ideas  in  etymologies  : 

{a.)  "Novelist." 
(d.)  "  Naturalist." 
{c.)  "  Methodist." 
(d.)  "  Plantation." 
(e.)   "  Ecstasy." 
V.  Restored  distinctions. 

1.  Mission  of  the  poet. 

2.  Milton's  etymologies. 

3.  Value  of  primitive  meanings. 


328  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

EXERCISE   No.   IV. 
THE  USE  AND  ABUSE  OF  SYNONYMS. 

I.  Moral  gain  of  synonyms. 

1.  ''  Felicitate  "  and  "  congratulate." 

II.  Importance  of  synonymous  distinctions. 

1.  ''To  invent  "  and  "  to  discover." 

2.  '*  Apprehend  "  and  ''  comprehend." 

3.  **  Opposite  "  and  "  contrary." 

III.  Synonyms  in  controversies. 

1.  ''  Compulsion  "  and  ''  obligation." 

2.  "  Instruction"  and  "  education." 

3.  "  Abdicated  "  and  "  deserted." 

4.  "  Maleketh  "  and  "  padischah." 

IV.  Careful  employment  of  synonyms. 

1.  Cicero's. 

2.  Quintilian's. 

3.  Augustine's. 

4.  Grimms'. 

V.  Wisdom  of  synonymous  distinctions. 

1.  "  Discernment"  and  "  discretion." 

2.  "  Fame,"  ''  popularity,"  "  celebrity,"  etc. 

EXERCISE  No.  V. 
OUR  RELATIONS  TO  SYNONYMS. 

I.  Fascination  of  the  study  of  synonyms. 

1.  Roman  names. 

2.  "Fief"  and  "  benefice." 

3.  "  Reconciliation,"  "  propitiation,"  and  "  atone- 

ment." 

4.  *'  Detraction  "  and  "  slander." 

5.  "  Emulation  "  and  "  envy." 

II.  Synonyms   are   an   effectual  help  to  a  good 
English  style. 

1.  First  characteristic  of  a  well-dressed  man. 

2.  Prime  characteristic  of  a  good  style. 

3.  Results  of  a  lack  of  precision. 


BLACKBOARD    EXERCISES.  329 

III.  How  SYNONYMS  ARE   LOST  TO   US. 

1.  Buried  in  classical  authors. 

2.  Buried  in  dictionaries. 

3.  Overlooked  in  the  search. 

IV.  Truth  and  falsehood  of  words. 

1.  Shakespeare. 

2.  Goethe. 

3.  Baxter. 

4.  Hooker. 


QUESTIONS. 

LECTURE   VI. 
On  the  Distinction  of  Words. 


How  are  synonyms  defined  and  described  ?  Give  the  history 
of  the  word. 

What  is  shown  by  the  definition  ? 

How  are  the  terms  ordinarily  used  ?     Why  ? 

What  is  sometimes  affirmed  of  synonyms  ? 

What  does  Bentley  say  about  them  ? 

How  are  words  described  ? 

What  is  unlikely  ? 

What  does  this  fact  lay  open  to  us  ? 

What  is  true  of  the  translator  and  his  translations  ? 

What  is  true  of  the  translation  of  Holy  Scripture  ?  What  of 
the  missionary  translator  ?     What  of  China  ? 

What  illustration  is  borrowed  from  the  Reformation  ?  What 
from  an  earlier  date  ? 

Are  Synonyms  identical  ?  Are  they  remotely  similar  ?  Why 
not  ?     How  is  this  made  clear  ? 

What  kind  of  words  must  synonyms  be  ^ 

What  question  presents  itself  P 

What  would  be  the  nature  of  languages  made  hy  agreement  ? 

How  are  languages  formed  ? 

What  is  true  of  various  tribes  of  people  ? 

How  is  this  illustrated  in  the  French  ? 

Give  examples  of  two  forms  of  the  same  word. 


QUESTIONS.  331 

What  is  the  case  with  a  conquering  people,  if  few  in  num- 
ber ? 

What  compromise  takes  place  ? 

How  do  authors  increase  synonyms  ?  Illustrate  by  '*  elec- 
trum." 

What  is  the  fate  of  some  words  thus  proposed  ? 

Give  an  example  of  synonyms  from  various  quarters. 

What  is  the  result  of  a  complex  state  of  society  ? 

How  is  the  field  of  thought  enclosed  ? 

How  does  language  correct  itself? 

Give  an  example  from  Church  history. 

What  is  the  result  of  the  desynonymizing  process  ? 

How  is  it  effected  ? 

What  have  single  writers  to  do  with  it  ? 

What  is  said  of  "  imagination"  and  "  fancy"  ? 

What  did  Wordsworth  render  impossible  ? 

What  is  quoted  from  De  Quincey? 

Who  coined  *'  to  desynonymize  "  ? 

What  other  words  did  Coleridge  contribute  ? 

What  is  true  of  "  famine  "  and  *'  hunger  "  ? 

Name  other  similar  pairs. 

What  is  said  of  such  discriminations  ?  How  are  they  justly 
regarded  ? 

Illustrate  the  ethical  gain  of  the  distinction  of  words  by 
''  vengeance  "  and  ''  revenge." 

What  is  the  result  of  the  present  use  of  these  two  words  ? 

Why  do  we  have  duplicates,  triplicates,  and  even  quintupli- 
cates  ? 

Mention  some  duplicate  substantives. 

What  is  true  of  theology  and  science  ?    Give  examples. 

Mention  some  duplicate  verbs. 

Mention  some  duplicate  adjectives  for  single  substantives. 

What  is  true  of  all  such  words  as  the  foregoing  ? 

How  do  we  use  "  shepherd  "  and  "  pastor  "  ?  *'  Love  "  and 
"  charity  "?  "  Ship  "  and  "  nave  "  ? 

Mention  other  examples. 

What  might  be  urged  in  reference  to  these  words  ? 


332  ON  THE  DISTINCTION   OF  WORDS. 

Where  do  we  find  the  same  process  at  work  ?  Illustrate 
with  "  astronomy  "  and  "  astrology  "  ;  "  despair  "  and  "  dif- 
fidence "  ;  ''  interference  "  and  '*  interposition." 

What  is  said  about  words  having  a  fundamental  etymologi- 
cal distinction  ?  Illustrate  with  ''  arrogant,"  **  presumptuous," 
and  "  insolent"  ;  "  hate,"  ''loathe,"  "  detest,"  ''  abhor." 

What  is  said  about  improper  synonyms  ?  Illustrate  with 
genuine  and  "  authentic." 

What  method  has  been  pursued  with  words  thus  far  ? 

What  is  said  of  a  book  edited  by  Archbishop  Whately  ? 

How  does  the  author  justify  himself? 

What  word  is  adduced  in  proof  ? 

How  are  words  attached  to  their  etymologies  ? 

Illustrate  with  ''novelist,"  "naturalist,"  "methodist," 
"  plantation,"  "  ecstasy." 

What  is  said  of  the  influence  of  etymologies  ? 

How  do  great  writers  take  advantage  of  this  ? 

What  is  said  of  Milton  in  this  respect  ? 

Give  a  few  examples  from  Paradise  Lost. 

What  is  said  about  the  past  history  of  words  ? 

What  does  Barrow  say  ? 

Illustrate  the  moral  gain  of  synonyms  by  "  felicitate  "  and 
"  congratulate." 

Illustrate  the  importance  of  synonymous  distinctions  by 
"  invention  "  and  "  discovery." 

Illustrate  distinctions  which  cannot  safely  be  lost  sight  of  by 
"  apprehend"  and  "  comprehend  "  ;  "  opposite  "  and  "  con- 
trary." 

How  are  controversies  affected  by  a  proper  distinction  of 
words  ?     Illustrate. 

What  evil  results  from  assuming  that  words  are  equivalent  ? 
Illustrate  with  "  instruction  "  and  "  education." 

Give  an  example  of  debated  synonyms. 

What  strife  grew  out  of  the  relations  of  England  and  Persia 
in  reference  to  a  word  ? 

What  is  said  of  the  importance  of  a  careful  use  of  syno- 
nyms? 


QUESTIONS.  333 

Give  examples  of  Cicero's  synonyms  ;  of  Quintilian's  ;  Au- 
gustine's ;  of  Grimms'  Dictionary. 

Illustrate  the  wisdom  of  distinguishing  between  things  that 
differ,  with  the  words  ''  discernment"  and  "  discretion." 

Bring  out  the  distinctions  between  the  pairs  suggested  in  the 
note. 

How  is  the  habit  of  discrimination  valuable  ? 

What  will  be  the  result  of  such  a  habit  ? 

How  many  names  did  Romans  of  the  upper  classes  bear  ? 
What  were  they  ?  What  do  we  learn  from  them  ?  What  from 
"fief"  and ''benefice"? 

How  can  we  obtain  a  firm  grasp  of  some  of  the  central  facts 
of  theology  ? 

What  other  profitable  ethical  excursions  are  suggested  ? 

How  do  nice  discriminations  help  us  to  obtain  a  good  Eng- 
lish style  of  writing  ? 

How  are  words  and  clothing  compared  ? 

What  impressions  do  we  get  from  a  careful  writer  ? 

What  is  said  about  words  left  unemployed  ?  Where  are 
they? 

Of  what  do  we  thus  deprive  ourselves  ? 

With  what  is  this  compared  ? 

What  is  true  of  the  relative  use  of  words  ? 

What  is  the  result  ? 

What  is  said  of  the  power  of  saying  exactly  what  we  mean  ? 

What  is  the  case  in  reference  to  the  truth  and  falsehood  in 
words  ? 

What  are  we  tempted  to  say  with  Shakespeare  ? 

How  do  we  account  for  the  cheating  power  of  words  ? 

What  is  urged  in  conclusion  ? 

What  is  promised  ? 


ADDITIONAL   WORDS   FOR   ILLUSTRATION. 


LECTURE  VI. 


On  the  Distinction  of  Words. 


1.  Garrulous. 

2.  Loquacious. 

3.  Talkative. 

4.  Gentle. 

5.  Tame. 

6.  Mild. 

7.  Genius. 

8.  Talent. 

9.  Grave. 

10.  Sober. 

11.  Serious. 

12.  Solemn. 

13.  Guess. 

14.  Think. 

15.  Reckon. 

16.  Believe. 

17.  Presume. 

18.  Suppose. 

19.  Humility. 

20.  Modesty. 

21.  Diffidence. 

22.  Ideal. 

23.  Fanciful. 

24.  Imaginary. 

25.  Inattention. 

26.  Inadvertency. 

27.  Incompetent. 


28.  Incapable. 

29.  Infidel. 

30.  Unbeliever. 

31.  Skeptic. 

32.  Innuendo. 
33'  Hint. 

34.  Insinuation. 

35.  Ponder. 

36.  Consider. 
27.  Muse. 

38.  Reflect. 

39.  Prevaricate. 

40.  Evade. 

41.  Equivocate. 

42.  Pride. 

43.  Vanity. 

44.  Prolix. 

45.  Diffuse. 

46.  Shall. 

47.  Will. 

48.  Quaint. 

49.  Odd. 

50.  Whimsical. 

51.  Ransom. 

52.  Redemption. 

53.  Real. 

54.  Actual. 


ADDITIONAL    WORDS   FOR   ILLUSTRATION.     33$ 


55.  Religion. 

56.  Piety. 

57.  Sanctity. 

58.  Holiness. 

59.  Morality. 

60.  Remark. 

61.  Observe. 

62.  Notice. 

63.  Ride. 

64.  Drive. 

65.  Scholar. 

66.  Pupil. 
t^.  Section. 


68.  District. 

69.  Region. 

70.  Station. 

71.  Depot. 

72.  Expect. 
Ty  Anticipate. 

74.  Canon. 

75.  Cannon. 

76.  Canon. 
'J'].  Smart. 

78.  Clever. 

79.  Notion. 

80.  Idea. 


LECTURE  VII. 

THE   schoolmaster's   USE  OF  WORDS. 

AT  the  Great  Exhibition  of  1 851,  there  might  be 
seen  a  collection,  probably  by  far  the  completest 
which  had  ever  been  got  together,  of  what  were 
called  the  material  helps  of  education.  There  was 
then  gathered  in  a  single  room  all  the  outward  machin- 
ery of  moral  and  intellectual  training ;  all  by  which 
order  might  be  best  maintained,  the  labor  of  the 
teacher  and  the  taught  economised,  with  a  thousand 
ingenious  devices  suggested  by  the  best  experience 
of  many  minds,  and  of  these  during  many  years. 
Nor  were  these  material  helps  of  education  merely 
mechanical.  There  were  in  that  collection  vivid 
representations  of  places  and  objects  ;  models  which 
often  preserved  their  actual  forms  and  proportions, 
not  to  speak  of  maps  and  of  books.  No  one  who  is 
aware  how  much  in  schools,  and  indeed  everywhere 
else,  depends  on  what  apparently  is  slight  and  exter- 
nal, would  hghtly  esteem  the  helps  and  hints  which 
such  a  collection  would  furnish.  And  yet  it  would 
be  well  for  us  to  remember  that  even  if  we  were  to 
obtain  all  this  apparatus  in  its  completest  form,  at 
the  same  time  possessing  the  most  perfect  skill  in  its 
application,  so  that  it  should  never  encumber  but 
always  assist  us,  we  should  yet  have  obtained  very 
little  compared  to  that  which,  as  a  help  of  education,  is 


WORD   IMPLEMENTS.  337 

already  ours.  When  we  stand  face  to  face  with  a  child, 
that  word  which  the  child  possesses  in  common  with 
ourselves  is  a  far  more  potent  implement  and  aid  of 
education  than  all  these  external  helps,  even  though 
they  should  be  accumulated  and  multiplied  a  thou- 
sandfold. A  reassuring  thought  for  those  who  may 
not  have  many  of  these  within  their  reach,  a  warning 
thought  for  those  who  might  be  tempted  to  put  their 
trust  in  them.  On  the  occasion  of  that  Exhibition  to 
which  I  have  referred,  it  was  well  said,  "  On  the 
structure  of  language  are  impressed  the  most  distinct 
and  durable  records  of  the  habitual  operations  of  the 
human  powers.  In  the  full  possession  of  language 
each  man  has  a  vast,  almost  an  inexhaustible,  treas- 
ure of  examples  of  the  most  subtle  and  varied  pro- 
cesses of  human  thought.  Much  apparatus,  many 
material  helps,  some  of  them  costly,  may  be  employed 
to  assist  education  ;  but  there  is  no  apparatus  which 
is  so  necessary,  or  which  can  do  so  much,  as  that 
which  is  the  most  common  and  the  cheapest — which 
is  always  at  hand,  and  ready  for  every  need.  Every 
language  contains  in  it  the  result  of  a  greater  number 
of  educational  processes  and  educational  experiments, 
than  we  could  by  any  amount  of  labor  and  ingenuity 
accumulate  in  any  educational  exhibition  expressly 
contrived  for  such  a  purpose." 

Being  entirely  convinced  that  this  is  nothing  more 
than  the  truth,  I  shall  endeavor  in  my  closing  lecture 
to  suggest  some  ways  in  which  you  may  effectually 
use  this  marvellous  implement  which  you  possess  to 
the  better  fulfilling  of  that  which  you  have  chosen  as 
the  task  and  business  of  your  life.  You  will  gladly 
15 


338     THE  schoolmaster's  use  of  words. 

hear  something  upon  this  matter  ;  for  you  will  never, 
I  trust,  disconnect  what  you  may  yourselves  be  learn- 
ing from  the  hope  and  prospect  of  being  enabled 
thereby  to  teach  others  more  effectually.  If  you  do, 
and  your  studies  in  this  way  become  a  selfish  thing, 
if  you  are  content  to  leave  them  barren  of  all  profit  to 
others,  of  this  you  may  be  sure,  that  in  the  end  they 
will  prove  not  less  barren  of  profit  to  yourselves.  In 
one  noble  line  Chaucer  has  characterized  the  true 
scholar  : — 

"And gladly  would  he  learn  and  gladly  teach." 

Resolve  that  in  the  spirit  of  this  line  you  will  work 
and  live. 

But  take  here  a  word  or  two  of  warning  before  we 
advance  any  further.  You  cannot,  of  course,  expect 
to  make  for  yourselves  any  original  investigations  in 
language  ;  but  you  can  follow  safe  guides,  such  as 
shall  lead  you  by  right  paths,  even  as  you  may  follow 
such  as  can  only  lead  you  astray.  Do  not  fail  to 
keep  in  mind  that  perhaps  in  no  region  of  human 
knowledge  are  there  such  a  multitude  of  unsafe  lead- 
ers as  in  this  ;  for  indeed  this  science  of  words  is  one 
which  many,  professing  for  it  an  earnest  devotion, 
have  done  their  best  or  their  worst  to  bring  into  dis- 
credit, and  to  make  the  laughing-stock  at  once  of  the 
foolish  and  the  wise.  Niebuhr  has  somewhere  noted 
**  the  unspeakable  spirit  of  absurdity  "  which  seemed 
to  possess  the  ancients,  whenever  they  meddled  with 
this  subject ;  but  the  charge  reaches  others  beside 
them.  Their  mantle,  it  must  be  owned,  has  in  these 
later  times  often  fallen  upon  no  unworthy  successors. 


JOHNSON'S  DICTIONARY.  339 

What  is  commoner,  even  now,  than  to  find  the 
investigator  of  words  and  their  origin  looking  round 
about  him  here  and  there,  in  all  the  languages, 
ancient  and  modern,  to  which  he  has  any  access,  till 
he  lights  on  some  word,  it  matters  little  to  him  in 
which  of  these,  more  or  less  resembling  that  which  he 
wishes  to  derive  ?  and  this  found,  to  consider  his  prob- 
lem solved,  and  that  in  this  phantom  hunt  he  has  suc- 
cessfully run  down  his  prey.  Even  Dr.  Johnson,  with 
his  robust,  strong,  EngUsh  common-sense,  too  often 
offends  in  this  way.  In  many  respects  his  Dictionary 
will  probably  never  be  surpassed.  We  shall  never 
have  more  concise,  more  accurate,  more  vigorous 
explanations  of  the  actual  meanings  of  words,  at  the 
time  when  it  was  published,  than  he  has  furnished. 
But  even  those  who  recognize  the  most  fully  this 
merit,  must  allow  that  he  was  ill  equipped  by  any 
preliminary  studies  for  tracing  the  past  history  of 
words  ;  that  in  this  he  errs  often  and  signally  ;  some- 
times where  the  smallest  possible  amount  of  knowl- 
edge would  have  preserved  him  from  error  ;  as  for 
instance  when  he  derives  the  name  of  the  peacock 
from  the  peak,  or  tuft  of  pointed  feathers,  on  its 
head  !  while  other  derivations  proposed  or  allowed 
by  him  and  others  are  so  far  more  absurd  than  this, 
that  when  Swift,  in  ridicule  of  the  whole  band  of 
philologers,  suggests  that  '  ostler '  is  only  a  contrac- 
tion of  oat-stealer,  and  '  breeches  '  of  bear-riches,  it 
can  scarcely  be  said  that  these  etymologies  are  more 
ridiculous  than  many  which  have  in  sober  earnest, 
and  by  men  of  no  inconsiderable  reputation,  been 
proposed. 


340     THE  schoolmaster's  use  of  words. 

Oftentimes  in  this  scheme  of  random  etymology,  a 
word  in  one  language  is  derived  from  one  in  another, 
in  bold  defiance  of  the  fact  that  no  points  of  historic 
contact  or  connection,  mediate  or  immediate,  have 
ever  existed  between  the  two  ;  the  etymologist  not 
caring  to  ask  himself  whether  it  was  thus  so  much  as 
possible  that  the  word  should  have  passed  from  the 
one  fanguage  to  the  other ;  whether  in  fact  the 
resemblance  is  not  merely  superficial  and  illusory, 
one  which  so  soon  as  they  are  stripped  of  their  acci- 
dents, disappears  altogether.  Take  a  few  specimens 
of  this  manner  of  dealing  with  words  ;  and  first  from 
the  earlier  etymologists.  They  are  often  hopelessly 
astray,  bHnd  leaders  of  the  blind."  Thus,  what  are 
men  doing  but  extending  not  their  knowledge  but 
their  ignorance,  when  they  deduce,  with  Varro,  '  pa- 

*  Menage  is  one  of  these  "blind  leaders  of  the  blind,"  of  whom  I 
have  spoken  above.  With  all  their  real,  though  not  very  accurate, 
erudition,  his  three  folio  volumes,  two  on  French,  one  on  Italian  ety- 
mologies, have  done  nothing  but  harm  to  the  cause  which  they  were  in- 
tended to  further.  G6nin  {Recreations  Philologiques^  pp.  12-15) 
passes  a  severe  but  just  judgment  upon  them  :  Menage,  comme  tous 
ses  devanciers  et  la  plupart  de  ses  successeurs,  semble  n'avoir  ete  dirige 
que  par  un  seul  principe  en  fait  d' etymologic.  Le  voici  dans  son 
expression  la  plus  nette.  Tout  mot  vient  du  mot  qui  lui  ressemble  le 
mieux.  Cela  pose,  Menage,  avec  son  erudition  polyglotte,  s'abat  sur  le 
grec,  le  latin,  Titalien,  I'espagnol,  I'allemand,  le  celtique,  et  ne  fait 
difficulte  d'allcr  jusqu'i  I'hebreu.  C'est  dommage  que  de  son  temps  on 
ne  cultivat  pas  encore  le  Sanscrit,  I'hindoustani,  le  thibetain  et  Tarnbe  : 
il  les  eut  contraints  a  lui  livrer  des  etymologies  fran9aises.  II  ne  se  met 
pas  en  peine  des  chemins  par  ou  un  mot  hebreu  ou  carthaginois  aurait 
pu  passer  pour  venir  s'ctablir  cu  France.  II  y  est,  le  voil^,  suflTit  ! 
L'ideniite  ne  pent  etre  mise  en  question  devaut  la  ressemblance,  ct 
souven  Dieu  sait  quelle  ressemblance  !  Compare  Ampere,  Formation 
de  la  Languc  Fran^aisCy  pp.  194,  195. 


ABSURD   ETYMOLOGY.  341 

vo '  from  '  pavor/  because  of  the  fear  which  the 
harsh  shriek  of  the  peacock  awakens  ;  or  with  Phny, 

*  panthera  *  from  TravOrjpiov,  because  the  properties 
g{  all  beasts  meet  in  the  panther ;  or  persuade  them- 
selves that  '  formica,'  the  ant,  is  *  ferens  micas,'  the 
grain-bearer  ?  Medieval  suggestions  abound,  as 
vain,  and  if  possible,  vainer  still.  *  Apis,'  a  bee,  is 
a7rou9  or  without  feet,  bees  being  born  without  feet,  the 
etymology  and  the  natural  history  keeping  excellent 
company  together.     Or  what  shall  we  say  of  deriving 

*  mors  '  from  *  amarus,'  because  death  is  bitter  ;  or 
from  '  Mars,'  because  death  is  frequent  in  war  ;  or 
'  a  morsu  vetiti  pomi,'  because  that  forbidden  bite 
brought  death  into  the  world  ;  or  with  a  modern 
investigator  of  language,  and  one  of  high  reputation 
in  his  time,  deducing  *  girl '  from  '  garrula,'  because 
girls  are  commonly  talkative  ? 

All  experience,  indeed,  proves  how  perilous  it  is 
to  etymologize  at  random,  and  on  the  strength  of 
mere  surface  similarities  of  sound.  Let  me  illustrate 
the  absurdities  into  which  this  may  easily  betray  us 
by  an  amusing  example.  A  clergyman,  who  him- 
self told  me  the  story,  had  sought,  and  not  unsuc- 
cessfully, to  kindle  in  his  schoolmaster  a  passion  for 
the  study  of  derivations.  His  scholar  enquired  of 
him  one  day  if  he  were  aware  of  the  derivation 
oi  '  crypt '  ?  He  naturally  replied  in  the  affirmative, 
that  '  crypt '  came  from  a  Greek  word  to  conceal, 
and  meant  a  covered  place,  itself  concealed,  and 
where  things  intended  to  be  concealed  were  placed. 
The  other  rejoined  that  he  was  quite  aware  the  word 
was  commonly  so  explained,  but  he  had  no  doubt 


342       THE  schoolmaster's   USE   OF  WORDS. 

erroneously  ;  that  *  crypt,'  as  he  had  now  convinced 
himself,  was  in  fact  contracted  from  '  cry-pit '  ;  being 
the  pit  where  in  days  of  Popish  tyranny  those  who 
were  condemned  to  cruel  penances  were  plunged, 
and  out  of  which  their  cry  was  heard  to  come  up — 
therefore  called  the  *  cry-pit,'  now  contracted  into 
*  crypt '  !  Let  me  say,  before  quitting  my  tale,  that 
I  would  far  sooner  a  schoolmaster  made  a  hundred 
such  mistakes  than  that  he  should  be  careless  and  in- 
curious in  all  which  concerned  the  words  which  he 
was  using.  To  make  mistakes,  as  we  are  in  the 
search  of  knowledge,  is  far  more  honorable  than  to 
escape  making  them  through  never  having  set  out  in 
this  search  at  all. 

But  while  errors  like  his  may  very  well  be  par- 
doned, of  this  we  may  be  sure,  that  they  will  do  little 
in  etymology,  will  continually  err  and  cause  others  to 
err,  who  in  these  studies  leave  this  out  of  sight  for  an 
instant — namely,  that  no  amount  of  resemblance  be- 
tween words  in  different  languages  is  of  itself  sufficient 
to  prove  that  they  are  akin,  even  as  no  amount  of 
apparent  unlikeness  in  sound  or  present  form  is  suffi- 
cient to  disprove  consanguinity.  "Judge  not  ac- 
cording to  appearance,"  must  everywhere  here  be 
the  rule.  One  who  in  many  regions  of  human 
knowledge  anticipated  the  discoveries  of  later  times, 
said  well  a  century  and  a  half  ago,  "  Many  etymolo- 
gies are  true,  which  at  the  first  blush  are  not  proba- 
ble "  ;  *  and,  as  he  might  have  added,  many  appear 


*  Leibnitz  (6)//.  vol.  v.,  p.   6i)  :  Sxpe  fit  ut  etyraologix  verse  sint, 
quae  primo  aspectu  verisimiles  non  suiit. 


ACCIDENTAL  SIMILARITIES.  343 

probable,  which  are  not  true.  This  being  so,  it  is 
our  wisdom  on  the  one  side  to  distrust  superficial 
likenesses,  on  the  other  not  to  be  dismayed  by  super- 
ficial differences.  I  cannot  go  into  this  matter  ;  only 
I  will  say,  Have  no  faith  in  those  who  etymologize 
on  the  strength  of  sounds,  and  not  on  that  of  letterSy 
and  of  letters,  moreover,  dealt  with  according  to 
fixed  and  recognized  laws  of  equivalence  and  permu- 
tation. Never  forget  that  illustrious  scholar's  word, 
that  much  in  this  region  of  knowledge  is  true  which 
does  not  seem  probable  ;  nor  the  converse,  perhaps 
still  more  important,  that  much  seems  probable  which 
is  not  true.  For  an  example  of  this  last,  '  Auge,' 
the  German  form  of  our  *eye,'  is  in  every  letter 
identical  with  a  Greek  word  for  splendor  {avyrj)  ;  and 
yet,  though  there  is  a  very  intimate  connection  be- 
tween German  and  Greek,  these  have  no  relation  with 
one  another  whatever ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
little  or  almost  nothing,  as  there  seems  of  contact 
between  *  Auge  *  and  '  oculus,'  they  are  certainly  the 
same  word.  Of  *  caput '  and  '  head,'  of  '  hospes  ' 
and  '  guest,'  of  *  gelidus  '  and  ^  cold,'  the  same 
might  be  afifirmed  ;  so  too  of  *  dens,'  *  tooth,*  and 
'  zahn'  ;*  and  in  like  manner  of  %>7i^,  *  anser,'  *  gans,' 
and  'goose.'  Who,  on  the  other  hand,  would  not 
take  for  granted  that  our  '  much '  and  the  Spanish 
*  mucho  '  identical  in  meaning,  were  also  in  etymology 
nearly  related  ?  There  is  no  connection  between 
them.  Between  '  vulgus '  and  '  Volk '  there  is  as 
little.     Not  many  years  ago  a  considerable  scholar 

*  Compare  Heyse,  System  der  Sprachwissenschaft,  p.  307. 


344     THE  schoolmaster's  use  of  words. 

identified  the  Greek  *  holos  *  (oXo^;)  and  our  *  whole/ 
and  few,  I  should  imagine,  have  not  been  tempted  at 
one  stage  of  their  knowledge  to  do  the  same.  They 
stand  in  no  relation  to  one  another. 

Here  then,  as  elsewhere,  the  condition  of  all  suc- 
cessful investigation  is  to  have  learned  to  disregard 
phenomena,  the  deceitful  shows  and  appearances  of 
things  ;  to  have  resolved  to  reach  and  to  grapple 
with  the  things  themselves.  It  is  the  fable  of  Pro- 
teus over  again.  He  will  take  a  thousand  shapes 
wherewith  he  will  seek  to  elude  and  delude  one  who 
is  determined  to  extort  from  him  that  true  answer, 
which  he  is  capable  of  yielding,  but  will  only  yield 
on  compulsion.  The  true  enquirer  is  deceived  by 
none  of  these.  He  still  holds  him  fast ;  binds  him 
in  strong  chains  ;  until  he  takes  his  proper  shape 
at  the  last ;  and  answers  as  a  true  seer  whatever 
question  may  be  put'to  him.  Nor,  let  me  observe  by 
the  way,  will  that  man's  gain  be  small  who,  having 
so  learned  to  distrust  the  obvious  and  the  plausible, 
carries  into  other  regions  of  study  and  of  action  the 
lessons  which  he  has  thus  learned  ;  determines  to 
seek  the  ground  of  things,  and  to  plant  his  foot  upon 
that ;  believes  that  a  lie  may  look  very  fair,  and  yet 
be  a  lie  after  all ;  that  the  truth  may  show  very  un- 
attractive, very  unlikely  and  paradoxical,  and  yet  be 
the  very  truth  notwithstanding. 

To  return  from  a  long,  but  not  unnecessary  di- 
gression. Convinced  as  I  am  of  the  immense  ad- 
vantage of  following  up  words  to  their  sources,  of 
*  deriving '  them,  that  is,  of  tracing  each  little  rill  to 
the   river  whence  it    was    first  drawn,  I   can   con- 


PHONETIC  SPELLING.  345 

ceive  no  method  of  so  effectually  defacing  and  bar- 
barizing our  English  tongue,  of  practically  emptying 
it  of  all  the  hoarded  wit,  wisdom,  imagination,  and 
history  which  it  contains,  of  cutting  the  vital  nerve 
which  connects  its  present  with  the  past,  as  the  intro- 
duction of  the  scheme  of  phonetic  spelling,  which 
some  have  lately  been  zealously  advocating  among 
us.  I  need  hardly  tell  you  that  the  fundamental 
idea  of  this  is  that  all  words  should  be  spelt  as  they 
are  sounded,  and  that  the  writing  should,  in  every 
case,  be  subordinated  to  the  speaking.*  This, 
namely,  that  writing  should  in  every  case  and  at  all 
costs  be  subordinated  to  speaking,  which  is  every- 
where tacitly  assumed  as  not  needing  any  proof,  is 
the  fallacy  which  runs  through  the  whole  scheme. 
There  is,  indeed,  no  necessity  for  this.  Every  word, 
on  the  contrary,  has  two  existences,  as  a  spoken  word 
and  a  written  ;  and  you  have  no  right  to  sacrifice  one 
of  these,  or  even  to  subordinate  it  wholly,  to  the 
other.  A  word  exists  as  truly  for  the  eye  as  for  the 
ear;  and  in  a  highly  advanced  state  of  society, 
where  reading  is  almost  as  universal  as  speaking, 
quite  as  much  for  the  one  as  for  the  other.  That  in 
the  written  word  moreover  is  the  permanence  and 
continuity  of  language  and  of  learning,  and  that  the 
connection  is  most  intimate  of  a  true  orthography 
with  all  this,  is  affirmed  in  our  words,  '  letters,'  *  lit- 

*  I  do  not   know    whether    the   advocates  of   phonetic  spelling  have 
urged  the  authority  and  practice  of  Augustus  as  being   in  their  favor. 
Suetonius,  among  other  amusing  gossip  about  this  emperor,  records  of 
him  :  Videtur  eorum  sequi  opinionem,  qui  perinde  scribendum   ac  lo 
quamur,  existiment  [OctaviuSy  c.  ^Z). 

15* 


346       THE  schoolmaster's  USE  OF  WORDS. 

erature,'  *  unlettered,'  as  in  other  languages  bywords 
exactly  corresponding  to  these.* 

The  gains  consequent  on  the  introduction  of  such  a 
change  in  our  manner  of  spelling  would  be  insignifi- 
cantly small,  the  losses  enormously  great.  There 
would  be  gain  in  the  saving  of  a  certain  amount  of  the 
labor  now  spent  in  learning  to  spell ;  an  amount  of 
labor,  however,  absurdly  exaggerated  by  the  promo- 
ters of  the  scheme.  But  even  this  gain  would  not 
long  remain,  seeing  that  pronunciation  is  itself  con- 
tinually altering  ;  custom  is  lord  here  for  better  and' 
for  worse  ;  and  a  multitude  of  words  are  now  pro- 
nounced in  a  manner  different  from  that  of  a  hundred 
years  ago,  indeed  from  that  of  ten  years  ago  ;  so  that 
before  very  long,  there  would  again  be  a  chasm  be- 
tween the  spelling  and  the  pronunciation  of  words  ; 
— unless  indeed  the  spelling  varied,  which  it  could 
not  consistently  refuse  to  do,  as  the  pronunciation 
varied,  reproducing  each  of  its  capricious  or  barbar- 
ous alterations  ;  these  last,  it  must  be  remembered, 
being  changes  not  in  the  pronunciation  only,  but  in 
the  word  itself,  which  would  only  exist  as  pronounced, 
the  written  word  being  a  mere  shadow  servilely  wait- 
ing upon  the  spoken.  When  these  changes  have 
multiplied  a  little,  and  they  would  indeed  multiply 
exceedingly  on  the  removal  of  the  barriers  to  change 
which  now  exist,  what  the  language  before  long 
would  become,  it  is  not  easy  to  guess. 

This  fact,  however,  though  sufficient  to  show  how 
ineflfectual   the   scheme  of  phonetic   spelling   would 

*  As,  -ypct/i/iaTo,  ay^jififiaros  ////«•<?,  belUs-Uttres, 


RESULTS   OF  PHONETIC   SPELLING.  347 

prove,  even  for  the  removing  of  those  inconveniences 
which  it  proposes  to  remedy,  is  only  the  smallest  ob- 
jection to  it.  The  far  more  serious  charge  which  we 
bring  against  it  is,  that  in  words  out  of  number  it 
would  obliterate  those  clear  marks  of  birth  and  par- 
entage, which  they  bear  now  upon  their  fronts,  or 
are  ready,  upon  a  very  slight  interrogation,  to  reveal. 
Words  have  now  an  ancestry  ;  and  the  ancestry  of 
words,  as  of  men,  is  often  a  very  noble  possession, 
making  them  capable  of  great  things,  because  those 
from  whom  they  are  descended  have  done  great 
things  before  them ;  but  this  would  deface  their 
scutcheon,  and  bring  them  all  to  the  same  ignoble 
level.  Words  are  now  a  nation,  grouped  into  tribes 
and  families,  some  smaller,  some  larger  ;  this  change 
would  go  far  to  reduce  them  to  a  promiscuous  and 
barbarous  horde.  Now  they  are  often  translucent 
with  their  inner  thought,  lighted  up  by  it  ;  in  how 
many  cases  would  this  inner  light  be  then  quenched? 
They  have  now  a  body  and  a  soul,  the  soul  quicken- 
ing the  body  ;  then  oftentimes  nothing  but  a  body, 
forsaken  by  the  spirit  of  life,  would  remain.  These 
objections  were  urged  long  ago  by  Bacon,  who  char- 
acterizes this  so-called  reformation,  ''that  writing 
should  be  consonant  to  speaking,"  as  '*  a  branch  of 
unprofitable  subtlety  ;  "  and  especially  urges  that 
thereby  ''the  derivations  of  words,  especially  from 
foreign  languages,  are  utterly  defaced  and  extin- 
guished." 

From  the  results  of  various  approximations  to  pho- 
netic spelling,  which  at  different  times  have  been 
made,  and  the  losses  thereon  ensuing,  we  may  guess 


348      THE  schoolmaster's  use  of  words. 

what  the  loss  would  be  were  the  system  fully  carried 
out.  Of  those  fairly  acquainted  with  Latin,  it  would 
be  curious  to  know  how  many  have  seen  *  silva '  in 
'  savage/  since  it  has  been  so  written,  and  not  *  sal- 
vage,' as  of  old  ?  or  have  been  reminded  of  the  hin- 
drances to  a  civilized  and  human  society  which  the 
indomitable  forest,  more  perhaps  than  any  other  ob- 
stacle, presents.  When  *  fancy  '  was  spelt '  phant'sy,* 
as  by  Sylvester  in  his  translation  of  Du  Bartas,  and 
other  scholarly  writers  of  the  seventeenth  century,  no 
one  could  doubt  of  its  identity  with  *  phantasy,'  as  no 
Greek  scholar  could  miss  its  relation  with  (pavracna. 
Spell  *  analyse  '  as  I  have  sometimes  seen  it,  and  as 
phonetically  it  ought  to  be,  *  analize,'  and  the  tap- 
root of  the  word  is  cut.  How  many  readers  will 
recognize  in  it  then  the  image  of  dissolving  and  re- 
solving aught  into  its  elements,  and  use  it  with  a 
more  or  less  conscious  reference  to  this  ?  It  may  be 
urged  that  few  do  so  even  now.  The  more  need  they 
should  not  be  fewer  ;  for  these  few  do  in  fact  retain 
the  word  in  its  place,  from  which  else  it  might  grad- 
ually drift  ;  they  preserve  its  vitality,  and  the  pro- 
priety of  its  use,  not  merely  for  themselves,  but  also 
for  the  others  that  have  not  this  knowledge.  In  pho- 
netic spelling  is,  in  fact,  the  proposal  that  the  learned 
and  the  educated  should  of  free  choice  place  them- 
selves under  the  disadvantages  of  the  ignorant  and 
uneducated,  instead  of  seeking  to  elevate  these  last 
to  their  own  more  favored  condition.  * 

*  The  same  attempt  to  introduce  phonogiaphy  has  been  several 
times  made,  once  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  attain  some  thirty  years 
ago  in  France.     What  would  be  th^re  the  results  ?     We  may  judge 


RELATIONSHIP   OF   WORDS.  349 

Even  now  the  relationships  of  words,  so  important 
for  our  right  understanding  of  them,  are  continually 
overlooked  ;  a  very  little  matter  serving  to  conceal 
from  us  the  family  to  which  they  pertain.  Thus  how 
many  of  our  nouns  are  indeed  unsuspected  partici- 
ples, or  are  otherwise  mostly  connected  with  verbs, 
with  which  we  probably  never  think  of  putting  them 
in  relation.  And  yet  with  how  lively  an  interest  shall 
we  discover  those  to  be  of  closest  kin,  which  we  had 
never  considered  but  as  entire  strangers  to  one  an- 
other ;  what  increased  mastery  over  our  mother 
tongue  shall  we  through  such  discoveries  obtain. 
Thus  the  *  smitli '  has  his  name  from  the  sturdy  blows 
that  he  *  smites'  upon  the  anvil  ;  *  wrong,'  is  the  per- 
fect  participle    of  *  to  wring,'    that  which   has  been 

•  wrung '  or  wrested  from  the  right ;  as   in  French 

•  tort,'  from  '  torqueo,'  is  the  twisted  ;  the  *  brunt ' 
of  the  battle  is  its  heat,  where  it  *  burns '  the  most 

of  these  from  the  results  of  a  partial  application  of  the  system. 
'Temps'  is  now  written  'terns,'  the/  having  been  ejected  as  super- 
fluous. What  is  the  consequence  ?  at  once  its  visible  connection  with 
the  Latin  'tempus,'  with  the  Spanish  *  tiempo,'  with  the  Italian  *  tem- 
po,' with  its  own  *  temporel '  and  *  temporaire,'  is  broken,  and  for  many 
effaced.     Or  note  the   result  from  another  point   of  view.     Here  are 

•  poids '  a  weight,  '  poix '  pitch,  '  pois '  peas.  No  one  could  mark  in 
speaking  the  distinction  between  these ;  and  thus  to  the  ear  there  may 
be  confusion  between  them,  but  to  the  eye  there  is  none  ;  not  to  say 
that  the  d  in  '  poiafe '  puts  it  for  us  in  relation  with  *  pon^us,'  the  x  in 
*poi;«r'with  'pi^t,' the  j  in  '  poij '  with  the  Low  Latin  'pii'um,'  In 
each  case  the  letter  which  these  reformers  would  dismiss  as  useless,  and 
worse  than  useless,  keeps  the  secret  of  the  word.  On  some  other  at- 
tempts in  the  same  direction  see  D' Israeli,  Amenities  of  Literature^  an 
article  On  Orthography  and  Orthoepy ;  and  compare  Diez,  Romaw 
ische  Sprachey  vol.  i.  p,  52. 


3 so     THE  schoolmaster's  use  of  words. 

freely ;    the    *  haft '    of  a   knife,    that  whereby   you 

*  have  '  or  hold  it. 

This  exercise  of  putting  words  in  their  true  relation 
and  connection  with  one  another  might  be  carried 
much  further.  Of  whole  groups  of  words,  which 
may  seem  to  acknowledge  no  kinship  with  one  an- 
other, it  will  not  be  difficult  to  show  that  they  had 
a  common  parentage  and  descent.  For  instance, 
here  are  *  shire,'  '  shore,'  *  share,'   *  shears,'   *  shred,' 

*  sherd ' ;  all  most  closely  connected  with  the  verb 

*  to   sheer,'    which    made   once   the   three    perfects, 

*  shore,'  *  share,'  *  sheered.'  *  Shire  '  is  a  district  in 
England,  separated  from  the  rest ;  a  '  share '  is  a  por- 
tion of  anything  thus  divided  off ;  *  shears  '  are  instru- 
ments effecting  this  process  of  separation  ;  the  *  shore  ' 
is  the  place  where  the  continuity  of  the  land  is  inter- 
rupted or  separated  by  the  sea  ;  a  *  shred  '  is  that  which 
is  •  shered '  or  shorn  from  the  main  piece  ;  a  '  sherd,* 
a  pot-'  sherd,'  (also  '  pot-share,'  Spenser,)  that  which 
is  broken  off  and  thus  divided  from  the  vessel ;  these 
not  at  all  exhausting  this  group  or  family  of  words, 
though  it  would  occupy  more  time  than  we  can  spare 
to  put  some  other  words  in  their  relation  with  it. 

But  this  analysing  of  groups  of  words  for  the  detect- 
ing of  the  bond  of  relationship  between  them,  and 
their  common  root,  may  require  more  etymological 
knowledge  than  you  possess,  and  more  helps  from 
books  than  you  can  always  command.  There  is 
another  process,  and  one  which  may  prove  no  less 
useful  to  yourselves  and  to  others,  which  will  lie  more 
certainly  within  your  reach.  You  will  meet  in  books, 
sometimes  in  the  same  book,  and  perhaps  in  the  sam* 


SEMINAL  MEANING  OF  WORDS.  35 1 

page  of  this  book,  a  word  used  in  senses  so  far  apart 
from  one  another  that  at  first  it  will  seem  to  you 
absurd  to  suppose  any  bond  of  connection  between 
them.  Now  when  you  thus  fall  in  with  a  word  em- 
ployed in  these  two  or  more  senses  so  far  removed 
from  one  another,  accustom  yourselves  to  seek  out 
the  bond  which  there  certainly  is  between  these 
several  uses.  This  tracing  of  that  which  is  common 
to  and  connects  all  its  meanings  can  only  be  done  by 
getting  to  its  centre  and  heart,  to  the  seminal  mean- 
ing, from  which,  as  from  a  fruitful  seed,  all  the  others 
unfold  themselves  ;  to  the  first  link  in  the  chain,  from 
which  every  later  one,  in  a  direct  line  or  a  lateral, 
depends.  We  may  proceed  in  this  investigation,  cer- 
tain that  we  shall  find  such,  or  at  least  that  such  there 
is  to  be  found.  For  nothing  can  be  more  certain 
than  this  (and  the  non-recognition  of  it  is  a  serious 
blemish  in  Johnson's  Dictionary),  that  a  word  has 
originally  but  one  meaning,  that  all  other  uses,  how- 
ever widely  they  may  diverge  from  one  another  and 
recede  from  this  one,  may  yet  be  affiliated  upon  it, 
brought  back  to  the  one  central  meaning,  which 
grasps  and  knits  them  all  together  ;  just  as  the  sev- 
eral races  of  men,  black,  white,  and  yellow  and  red, 
despite  of  all  their  present  diversity  and  dispersion, 
have  a  central  point  of  unity  in  that  one  pair  from 
which  they  all  have  descended. 

Let  me  illustrate  this  by  two  or  three  familiar 
examples.  How  various  are  the  senses  in  which 
'  post '  is  used  ;  as  *  post  '-office  ;  *  post  '-haste  ;  a 
*  post '  standing  in  the  ground  ;  a  military  '  post '  ;  an 
official  *  post ' ;  *  to  post '  a  ledger.     Is  it  possible  to 


352       THE  schoolmaster's   USE  OF  WORDS. 

find  anything  which  is  common  to  all  these  uses  of 
'  post '  ?  When  once  we  are  on  the  right  track,  noth- 
ing is  easier.  '  Post '  is  the  Latin  '  positus,'  that 
which  is  placed ;  the  piece  of  timber  is  '  placed '  in  the 
ground,    and   so    a   '  post '  ;    a    military  station  is  a 

*  post,'  for  a  man  is  *  placed  '  in  it,  and  must  not  quit 
it  without  orders  ;  to  travel  *  post,'  is  to  have  certain 
relays  of  horses  *  placed  '  at  intervals,  that  so  no  delay 
on  the  road  may  occur  ;.  the  '  post  '-office  avails  itself 
of  this  mode  of  communication  ;  to  ^  post '  a  ledger  is 
to  ^  place  '  or  register  its  several  items. 

Once   more,  in  what  an  almost  infinite  number  of 
senses   '  stock '  is  employed  ;  we  have  live  '  stock,' 

*  stock'  in  trade  or  on  the  farm,  the  village  *  stocks,' 
the  *  stock'  of  a  gun,  the  *  stock  '-dove,  the  '  stocks  * 
on  which  ships  are  built,  the  *  stock '  which  goes 
round  the  neck,  the  family  *  stock,'  the  '  stocks,*  or 
public  funds,  in  which  money  is  invested,  with  other 

*  stocks  '  besides  these.  What  point  in  common  can 
we  find  between  them  all  ?  This,  that  being  all 
derived  from  one  verb,  they  cohere  in  the  idea  of 
Jixedjtess  which  is  common  to  them  all.     Thus,  the 

*  stock '  of  a  gun  is  that  in  which  the  barrel  is  fixed  ; 
the  village  *  stocks  '  are  those  in  which  the  feet  are 
fastened  ;  the  *  stock  '  in  trade  is  the  fixed  capital  ; 
and  so  too,  the  '  stock  '  on  the  farm,  although  the 
fixed  capital  has  there  taken  the  shape  of  horses  and 
cattle  ;  in  the  *  stocks  '  or  public  funds,  money  sticks 
fast,  inasmuch  as  those  who  place  it  there  cannot 
withdraw  or  demand  the  capital,  but  receive  only  the 
interest ;  the  *  stock '  of  a  tree  is  fast  set  in  the 
ground ;  and  from  this  use  of  the  word  it  is  trans- 


HOMONYMS.  353 

ferred  to  a  family ;  the  *  stock  '  or  *  stirps '  is  that 
from  which  it  grows,  and  out  of  which  it  unfolds  itself. 
And  here  we  may  bring  in  the  *  stock  '-dove,  as  being 
the  *  stock  '  or  stirps  of  the  domestic  kinds.  I  might 
group  with  these,  '  stake '  in  both  its  spellings  ;  a 
*  stake '  is  stuck  in  the  hedge  and  there  remains  ; 
the  '  stakes  '  which  men  wager  against  the  issue  of  a 
race  are  paid  down,  and  thus  fixed  or  deposited  to 
answer  the  event :  a  beef-'  steak  '  is  a  portion  so  small 
that  it  can  be  stuck  on  the  point  of  a  fork  ;  and  so 
forward."^ 

When  we  thus  affirm  that  the  divergent  meanings 
of  a  word  can  all  be  brought  back  to  some  one  point 
from  which,  immediately  or  mediately,  they  every 
one  proceed,  that  none  has  primarily  more  than  one 
meaning,  it  must  be  remembered  that  there  may 
very  well  be  two  words,  or,  as  it  will  sometimes  hap- 
pen, more,  spelt  as  well  as  pronounced  alike,  which 
yet  are  wholly  different  in  their  derivation  and  prim- 
ary usage  ;  and  that,  of  course,  between  such  homo- 
nyms as  these  no  bond  of  union  on  the  score  of  this 
identity  is  to  be  sought.  Neither  does  this  fact  in 
the  least  invalidate  this  assertion.  We  have  in  such 
cases,  as  Cobbett  has  expressed  it  well,  the  same 
combination  of  letters,  but  not  the  same  word.  Thus 
we  have  '  page,'  the  side  of  a  leaf,  from  *  pagina,* 
and  '  page,'  a  small  boy,  the  Greek  iraihlov  ;  '  league,' 
a  treaty,  from  '  ligare,'  to  bind,  and  '  league  '  (leuca), 
a   Celtic   measure    of  distance  ;    '  host '    (hostis),    an 


*  See  the  Instructions  for  Parish  Priests^  p.  69,  published  by  the 
Early  English  Texts  Society, 


354     THE  schoolmaster's  use  of  words. 

army  ;  *  host/  the  Latin  hospes,  and  '  host '  (hostia), 
in  the  Roman  CathoHc  sacrifice  of  the  mass  ;  '  riddle,' 
a  sieve  or  small  network,  the  Latin  reticulum,  and 

*  riddle,'  an  enigma,  an  old  English  word  ;  the  '  Mo- 
saic '  law,  and  '  mosaic '  work  ('  opus  musivum ') 
work  graceful,  as  connected  with  the  Muses.  We 
have  two  '  ounces  '  (uncia  and  onze)  ;  two  '  seals  ' 
(segillum  and  seol)  ;  two  *  moods '  (modus  and 
m6d)  ;  two  *  sacks  '  (saccus  and  sec)  ;  two  sounds 
(sonus  and  sund)  ;  two  *  lakes  *  (lacus  and  lacca)  ; 
two  '■  kennels  '  (canalis  and  canile)  ;  two  *  schools,' 
one  (schola)  of  philosophy,  another  (sceol)  of  whales  ; 
two     '  partisans '     (partisan    and    partesana)  ;     two 

*  quires  '  (choir  and  cahier)  ;  two  *  corns  '  (korn  and 
cornu)  ;  two  '  ears  '  (ohr  and  ahre),;  two  *  doles ' 
(deuil  and  theil)  ;  two  *  perches  '  (pertica  and  perca) ; 
two  *  salts  '  (sal  and  sault  or  saltus)  ;  two  '  races  ' 
(raes  and  the  French  race) ;  two  *  rocks,'  two  '  rooks,' 
two     *  sprays,'     two     *  saws,'     two     '  strains,'     two 

*  trunks,'  two  *  crops,'  two  *  helms,'  two  verbs  '  to 
allow  '  (allocare  and  allaudare)  ;  three  moles,'  three 
^  rapes  '  (as  the  *  rape  '  of  Proserpine,  the  '  rape  * 
of  Bramber,  *  rape  '-seed  ;  four  *  ports  '  (porta,  por- 
tus,  port.  Oporto).  Other  '  heterodynamic '  words 
in  the  language  (I  borrow  the  title  from  Pott),  are 
the  following  :  *  barnacle,'  *  bill,'  *  bound,'  *  breeze,' 

*  bull,'     *  caper,'    *  cricket,'    '  crowd,'    *  dam,'    '  fog,' 

*  fount,'  '  gin,'  '  gore,'  '  gulf,'  *  gum,'  *  gust,'  '  hind,' 
Miip,'  'jar,'  *jet,'  Mime,'   *  mace,'   *  mass,'  'mast,' 

*  match,'   '  mint,'   *  moor,'    *  paddock,'    *  pernicious,' 

*  plot,'    *  pulse/    *  punch,'    *  scale,'    '  scrip,'    '  shock,' 

*  shrub,'    'smack/    'soil,'    'tent,'    'toil/     You   will 


CANDIDATE.  355 

find  it  profitable  to  follow  these  up  at  home,  to  trace 
out  the  two  or  more  words  which  have  clothed  them- 
selves in  exactly  the  same  outward  form,  and  on 
what  etymologies  they  severally  repose  ;  so  too,  as 
often  as  you  suspect  the  existence  of  homonyms,  to 
make  proof  of  the  matter  for  yourselves,  gradually 
forming  as  complete  a  list  of  these  as  you  can.* 
You  may  usefully  do  the  same  in  any  other  language 
which  you  study,  for  they  exist  in  all.  In  all  these 
the  identity  is  merely  on  the  surface  and  in  sound, 
and  it  would,  of  course,  be  lost  labour  to  seek  for  a 
point  of  contact  between  meanings  which  have  no 
closer  connection  with  one  another  in  reality  than 
they  have  in  appearance. 

Let  me  suggest  some  further  exercises  in  this  re- 
gion of  words.  There  are  some  which  at  once  pro- 
voke and  promise  to  reward  inquiry,  by  the  evident 
readiness  with  which  they  will  yield  up  the  secret,  if 
duly  interrogated  by  us.  Many,  as  we  have  seen, 
have  defied,  and  will  probably  defy  to  the  end,  all 
efforts  to  dissipate  the  mystery  which  hangs  over 
them  ;  and  these  we  must  be  content  to  leave ;  but 
many  announce  that  their  explanations  cannot  be 
very  far  to  seek.  Let  me  instance  'candidate.' 
Does  it  not  argue  an  incurious  spirit  to  be  content 
that  this  word  should  be  given  and  received  by  us  a 
hundred  times,  as  at  a  contested  election  it  is,  and 
we  never  ask  ourselves,  What  does  it  mean  ?  why  is 
one    offering   himself  to    the    choice    of  his    fellows, 

*  For  a  nearly  complete  list  of  these  heterodynamic  words,  see 
Matzner's  Engl.  Gratninatiky  vol.  i.  pp.  187-204;  and  compare 
Dwight's  Modern  Philology^  vol  ii.  p.  311. 


356       THE  SCHOOLMASTER^S  USE  OF  WORDS. 

called  a  '  candidate  '  ?  If  the  word  lay  evidently 
beyond  our  horizon,  we  might  acquiesce  in  our  igno- 
rance ;  but  resting,  as  manifestly  it  does,  upon  the 
Latin  *  candidus,'  it  challenges  inquiry,  and  a  very 
little  of  this  would  at  once  put  us  in  possession  of 
the  Roman  custom  for  which  it  witnesses — namely, 
that  such  as  intended  to  claim  the  suffrages  of  the 
people  for  any  of  the  chief  offices  of  the  state,  pre- 
sented themselves  beforehand  to  them  in  a  2u/iite  toga, 
being  therefore  called  *  candidati.*  And  as  it  so 
often  happens  that  in  seeking  information  on  one 
subject  we  obtain  it  upon  another,  so  will  it  probably 
be  here  ;  for  in  fully  learning  what  this  custom  was, 
you  will  hardly  fail  to  learn  how  we  obtained  '  ambi- 
tion,' what  originally  it  meant,  and  how  Milton 
should  have  written — 

**To  reign  is  worth  ambition,  though  in  hell." 

Or  again,  any  one    who    knows  so    much  as   that 

*  verbum  '  means  a  word,  might  well  be  struck  by  the 
fact  (and  if  he  followed  it  up  would  be  led  far  into 
the  relation  of  the  parts  of  speech  to  one  another), 
that  in  grammar  it  is  not  employed  to  signify  any 
word  whatsoever,  but  restricted  to  the  verb  alone  ; 

*  verbum '  is  the  verb.  Surely  here  is  matter  for 
reflection.  What  gives  to  the  verb  the  right  to 
monopolize    the  dignity   of  being    '  the  word  '  ?     Is 

jt  because  the  verb  is  the  animating  power,  the 
vital  principle  of  every  sentence,  and  that  without 
which,  understood  or  uttered,  no  sentence  can  exist? 
or  can  you  offer  any  other  reason  ?  I  leave  this  to 
your  own  consideration. 


CLASSICS   AND   CLASSICAL.  357 

We  call  certain  books  *  classics.'  We  have  indeed 
a  double  use  of  the  word,  for  we  speak  of  the  Greek 
and  Latin  as  the  *  classical '  languages  and  the  great 
writers  in  these  as  *  the  classics  '  ;  while  at  other  times 
you  hear  of  a  *  classical '  English  style,  or  of  English 
'  classics.'  Now  *  classic  '  is  connected  plainly  with 
*  classis.'  What  then  does  it  mean  in  itself,  and  how 
has  it  arrived  at  this  double  use?  **  The  term  is 
drawn  from  the  political  economy  of  Rome.  Such  a 
man  was  rated  as  to  his  income  in  the  third  class, 
such  another  in  the  fourth,  and  so  on  ;  but  he  who 
was  in  the  highest  was  emphatically  said  to  be  of  the 
class,  '  classicus  ' — a  class  man,  without  adding  the 
number,  as  in  that  case  superfluous  ;  while  all  others 
were  infra  classem.  Hence,  by  an  obvious  analogy, 
the  best  authors  were  rated  as  *  classici,'  or  men  of 
the  highest  class  ;  just  as  in  English  we  say  '  men  of 
rank '  absolutely,  for  men  who  are  in  the  highest 
ranks  of  the  state."  The  mental  process  by  which 
this  title,  which  would  apply  rightly  to  the  best 
authors  in  all  languages,  came  to  be  restricted  to 
those  only  in  two,  and  these  two  to  be  claimed,  to 
the  seeming  exclusion  of  all  others,  as  tJie  classical 
languages,  is  one  constantly  recurring,  making  itself 
felt  in  all  regions  of  human  thought  ;  to  which  there- 
fore I  would  in  passing  call  your  attention,  though  I 
cannot  now  do  more. 

There  is  one  circumstance  which  you  must  by  no 
means  suffer  to  escape  your  own  notice,  nor  that  of 
your  pupils — namely,  that  words  out  of  number, 
which  are  now  employed  only  in  a  figurative  sense, 
did  yet  originally  rest  on  some  fact   of  the  outward 


358     THE  schoolmaster's  use  of  words. 

world,  vividly  presenting  itself  to  the  imagination  ; 
Avhich  fact  the  word  has  incorporated  and  knit  up 
with  itself  for  ever.  If  I  may  judge  from  my  own 
experience,  few  intelligent  boys  would  not  feel  that 
they  had  gotten  something,  when  made  to  under- 
stand that  '  to  insult '  means  properly  to  leap  as  on 
the  prostrate  body  of  a  foe  ;  *  to  affront,'  to  strike 
him  on  the  face  ;  that  '  to  succor '  means  by  running 
to  place  oneself  under  one  that  is  falling;  *  to  relent,' 
(connected  with  '  lentus,'  not  '  lenis,')  to  slacken  the 
swiftness  of  one's  pursuit ;  *  *  to  reprehend,'  to  lay 
hold  of  one  with  the  intention  of  forcibly  pulling  him 
back  ;  '  to  exonerate,'  to  discharge  of  a  burden, 
ships  being  exonerated  once  ;  that  *  to  be  examined  ' 
means  to  be  weighed.  They  would  be  pleased  to 
learn  that  a  man  is  called  'supercilious,'  because 
haughtiness  with  contempt  of  others  expresses  itself 
by  the  raising  of  the  eyebrows  or  *  supercilium  '  ; 
that  *  subtle '  (subtilis  for  subtexilis)  is  literally  *  fine- 
spun '  ;  that  '  astonished '  (attonitus)  is  properly 
thunderstruck ;  that  *  imbecile,'  which  we  use  for 
weak,  and  now  always  for  weak  in  intellect,  means 
strictly  (unless  indeed  we  must  renounce  this  ety- 
mology), leaning  upon  a  staff  (in  bacillo),  as  one  aged 
or  infirm  might  do ;  that  *  chaste  '  is  properly  white, 
*  castus  '  being  a  participle  of  *  candeo,'  as  is  now 
generally  allowed;  that  *  sincere  '  may  be — I  dare 
not  affirm  that  it  is — without  wax,  (sine  cerd,)  as  the 
best  and  finest  honey  should  be  ;  that  a '  companion,' 
probably  at  least,   is  one  with  whom  we  share  our 

*  *'  But  nothing  might  re/ent  his  hasty  flight."    (Spenser.) 


TRIVIAL  AND   RIVAL.  359 

bread,  a  messmate  ;  that  a  '  sarcasm '  is  properly 
such  a  lash  inflicted  by  the  '  scourge  of  the  tongue  ' 
as  brings  away  \ki^  flesh  after  it ;  with  much  more  in 
the  same  kind. 

*  Trivial '  is  a  word  borrowed  from  the  life.  Mark 
three  or  four  persons  standing  idly  at  the  point  where 
one  street  bisects  at  right  angles  another,  and  dis- 
cussing there  the  idle  nothings  of  the  day  ;  there  you 
have  the  living  explanation  of  *  trivial,'  *  trivialities,' 
such  as  no  explanation  not  rooting  itself  in  the  ety- 
mology would  ever  give  you,  or  enable  you  to  give 
to  others.  You  have  there  the  *  tres  viae,'  the  '  trivi- 
um '  ;  and  *  trivialities '  properly  mean  such  talk  as  is 
holden  by  those  idle  loiterers  that  gather  at  this  meet- 
ing of  three  roads.*  'Rivals'  properly  are  those 
who  dwell  on  the  banks  of  the  same  river.  But  as 
all  experience  shows,  there  is  no  such  fruitful  source 
of  contention  as  a  water-right,  and  these  would  be 
often  at  strife  with  one  another  in  regard  of  the 
periods  during  which  they  severally  had  a  right  to  the 
use  of  the  stream,  turning  it  off  into  their  own  fields 
before  the  time,  or  leaving  open  the  sluices  beyond 
the  time,  or  in  other  ways  interfering,  or  being 
counted  to  interfere,  with  the  rights  of  their  neigh- 
bors.    And  in  this  way  *  rivals '  came  to  be  applied 


*  I  have  allowed  this  explanation  to  stand  ;  yet  with  many  misgiv- 
ings whether  '  trivial '  is  not  from  *  triviuin  '  in  another  sense  ;  that  is, 
from  the  *  trivium,'  or  three  preparatory  disciplines, — grammar,  arith- 
metic, and  geometry, — as  contrasted  with  the  four  more  advanced,  or 
*quadrivium,'  which  together  were  esteemed  in  the  Middle  Ages  to 
constitute  a  complete  liberal  education.  Preparatory  schools  were  often 
called  '  trivial  schools,'  as  occupying  themselves  with  the  *  trivium.' 


360       THE  schoolmaster's   USE  OF  WORDS. 

to  any  who  were  on  any  grounds  in  unfriendly  com- 
petition with  one  another. 

By  such  teaching  as  this  you  may  often  improve, 
and  that  without  turning  play-time  into  lesson-time, 
the  hours  of  relaxation  and  amusement.  But  *  relaxa- 
tion,' on  which  we  have  just  lighted  as  by  chance, 
must  not  escape  us.  How  can  the  bow  be  '  relaxed  ' 
or  slackened  (for  this  is  the  image,)  which  has  not 
been  bent,  whose  string  has  never  been  drawn  tight  ? 
Having  drawn  tight  the  bow  of  our  mind  by  earnest 
toil,  we  may  then  claim  to  have  it  from  time  to  time 

*  relaxed.'  Having  been  attentive  and  assiduous, 
then,  but  not  otherwise,  we  may  claim  *  relaxation' 
and  amusement.  But  *  attentive  '  and  '  assiduous  ' 
are  themselves  words  which  will  repay  us  to  under- 
stand exactly  what  they  mean.  He  is  *  assiduous ' 
who  sits  close  to  his  work  ;  he  is  *  attentive,'  who, 
being  taught,  stretches  out  his  neck  that  so  he  may 
not  lose  a  word.  *  Diligence  '  too  has  its  lesson. 
Derived  from  *  diligo,'  to  love,  it  reminds  us  that  the 
secret  of  true  industry  in  our  work  is  love  of  that 
work.  And  as  truth  is  wrapped  up  in  *  diligence,' 
what  a  lie,  on  the  other  hand,  lurks  at  the  root  of 

*  indolence,'  or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  of  our 
present   employment    of  it  !      This,    from   *  in '  and 

*  doleo,'  not  to  grieve,  is  properly  a  state  in  which  we 
have  no  grief  or  pain  ;  and  employed  as  we  now 
employ  it,  would  have  us  to  believe  that  indulgence 
in  sloth  constitutes  for  us  the  truest  negation  of  pain. 
Now  no   one  would   wish  to  deny  that  *  pain '  and 

*  pains '  are  often  nearly  allied  ;  but  yet  these  pains 
hand  us  over  to  true  pleasures ;  while  indolence  is  so 


NATIONAL   SCHOOLS.  3^1 

far  from  yielding  that  good  which  it  is  so  forward  to 
promise,  that  Cowper  spoke  only  truth,  when,  per- 
haps meaning  to  witness  against  a  falsehood  here,  he 
spoke  of 

**  Lives  spent  in  indolence^  and  therefore  sad^^ 

not,  **  therefore  glady'  as  the  word  *  indolence  *  would 
fain  have  us  to  believe. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  these  studies  I  have 
been  urging  may  be  turned  to  account.  Doubtless 
you  will  seek  to  cherish  in  your  scholars,  to  keep 
lively  in  yourselves,  that  spirit  and  temper  which  find 
a  special  interest  in  all  relating  to  the  land  of  our 
birth,  that  land  which  the  providence  of  God  has 
assigned  as  the  sphere  of  our  life's  task  and  of  theirs. 
Our  schools  are  called  '  national,'  and  if  we  would 
have  them  such  in  reality,  we  must  neglect  nothing 
that  will  foster  a  national  spirit  in  them.  I  know 
not  whether  this  is  sufficiently  considered  among  us  ; 
yet  certainly  we  cannot  have  Church-schools  worthy 
the  name,  least  of  all  in  England,  unless  they  are 
truly  national  as  well.  It  is  the  anti-national  char- 
acter of  the  Roman  Catholic  system,  though  I  do  not 
separate  this  from  the  anti-scriptural,  but  rather 
regard  the  two  as  most  intimately  connected,  which 
mainly  revolts  Englishmen  ;  and  if  their  sense  of  this 
should  ever  grow  weak,  their  protest  against  that 
system  would  soon  lose  much  of  its  energy  and 
strength.  Now  here,  as  everywhere  else,  knowledge 
must  be  the  food  of  love.  Your  pupils  must  know 
something  about  England,  if  they  are  to  love  it ; 
they  must  see  some  connection  of  its  past  with  its 
i6 


362       THE  schoolmaster's  USE  OF  WORDS. 

present,  of  what  it  has  been  with  what  it  is,  if  they 
are  to  feel  that  past  as  anything  to  them. 

And  as  no  impresses  of  the  past  are  so  abiding,  so 
none,  when  once  attention  has  been  awakened  to 
them,  are  so  self-evident  as  those  which  names  pre- 
serve ;  although,  without  this  calling  of  the  attention 
to  them,  the  most  broad  and  obvious  of  these  foot- 
prints of  time  may  continue  to  escape  our  observation 
to  the  end  of  our  lives.  Leibnitz  tells  us,  and  one  can 
quite  understand,  the  delight  with  which  a  great  Ger- 
man Emperor,  Maximilian  the  First,  discovered  that 
'  Habsburg,'  or  *  Hapsburg,'  the  ancestral  name  of  hia 
house,  really  had  a  meaning,  one  moreover  full  of 
vigor  and  poetry.  This  he  did,  when  he  heard  it  by 
accident  on  the  lips  of  a  Swiss  peasant,  no  longer  cut 
short  and  thus  disguised,  but  in  its  original  fulness, 
*  Ilabichtsburg,'  or  *  Hawk's-Tower,'  being  no  doubt 
the  name  of  the  castle  which  was  the  cradle  of  his 
race.*  Of  all  the  thousands  of  Englishmen  who  are 
aware  that  Angles  and  Saxons  established  themselves 
in  this  island,  and  that  we  are  in  the  main  descended 
from  them,  it  would  be  curious  to  know  how  many 
have  realized  to  themselves  a  fact  so  obvious  as  that 
this  *  England '  means  *  Angle-land,*  or  that  in  the 
names  *  Essex,'  *  Sussex'  and  *  Middlesex,'  we  pre- 
serve a  record  of  East  Saxons,  South  Saxons,  and 
Middle  Saxons,  who  occupied  those  several  portions 
of  the  land  ;  or  that  '  Norfolk  *  and  *  Suffolk  '  are  two 
broad  divisions  of  *  northern  '  and  '  southern  folk,*  into 
which    the    East    Anglian    kingdom   was     divided. 


*  0pp.  vol.  vi.  pt.  2,  p.  20. 


WELSH  AND   DANISH  NAMES.  363 

*  Cornwall '  does  not  bear  its  origin  quite  so  plainly 
upon  its  front,  or  tell  its  story  so  that  every  one  who 
runs  may  read.  At  the  same  time  its  secret  is  not 
hard  to  attain  to.  As  the  Teutonic  immigrants  ad- 
vanced, such  of  the  British  population  as  were  not 
either  destroyed  or  absorbed  by  them  retreated,  as 
we  all  have  learned,  into  Wales  and  Cornwall,  that  is, 
till  they  could  retreat  no  further.  The  fact  is  evident- 
ly preserved  in  the  name  of  *  Wales,'  which  means 
properly  'The  foreigners,' — the  nations  of  Teutonic 
blood  caUing  all  bordering  tribes  by  this  name.  But 
though  not  quite  so  apparent  on  the  surface,  this  fact  is 
also  preserved  in  '  Cornwall,'  written  formerly  '  Corn- 
wales,'  or  .the  land  inhabited  by  the  Welsh  of  the  Corn 
or  Horn.  The  chroniclers  uniformly  speak  of  North 
Wales  and  Corn-Wales.*  These  Angles,  Saxons, 
and  Britons  or  Welshmen,  about  whom  our  pupils 
may  be  reading,  will  be  to  them  more  like  actual  men 
of  flesh  and  blood,  who  indeed  trod  this  same  soil 
which  we  are  treading  now,  when  we  can  thus  point 
to  traces  surviving  to  the  present  day,  which  they 
have  left  behind  them,  and  which  England,  as  long 
as  it  is  England,  will  retain. 

The  Danes  too  have  left  their  marks  on  the  land. 
We  all  probably  are,  more  or  less,  aware  how  much 
Danish  blood  runs  in  English  veins  ;  what  large  col- 
onies from  Scandinavia  (for  as  many  may  have  come 
from  Norway  as  from  modern  Denmark),  settled  in 
some  parts  of  this  island.  It  will  be  interesting  to 
show  that  the  limits  of  this   Danish  settlement  and 

*  Isaac  Taylor,  Names  and  Places ^  2d  edit.  p.  d-^,. 


364       THE  schoolmaster's  USE  OF  WORDS. 

occupation  may  even  now  be  confidently  traced  by 
the  constant  recurrence  in  all  such  districts  of  the 
names  of  towns  and  villages  ending  in  *  by,'  which 
signified  in  their  language  a  dwelling  or  single  village  ; 
as  Netherby,  Appleby,  Derby,  Whitby.  Thus  if  you 
examine  closely  a  map  of  Lincolnshire,  one  of  the 
chief  seats  of  the  Danish  settlement,  you  will  find 
one  hundred  or  well-nigh  a  fourth  part,  of  the  towns 
and  villages  to  have  this  ending,  the  whole  coast 
being  studded  with  them — they  lie  nearly  as  close  to 
one  another  as  in  Sleswick  itself ;  *  while  here  in 
Hampshire  it  is  utterly  unknown.  Or,  again  draw  a 
line  transversely  through  England  from  Canterbury 
by  London  to  Chester,  the  line,  that  is,  of  the  great 
Roman  road,  called  Watling  Street,  and  north  of  this 
hundred  instances  of  its  occurrence  may  be  found, 
while  to  the  south  there  are  almost  none.  *  Thorpe/ 
equivalent  to  the  German  *  dorf,'  as  Bishopsthorpe 
Althorp,' tells  the  same  tale  of  Norse  occupation  of 
the  soil  ;  and  the  termination,  somewhat  rarer,  of 
'  thwaite*  no  less.  On  the  other  hand,  where,  as  in 
this  south  of  England,  the  '  hams  *  abound  (the  word 
is  identical  with  our  *  home  '),  as  Buckingham,  Eg- 
ham,  Shoreham,  there  you  may  be  sure  that  not 
Norsemen  but  Germans  proper  took  possession  of  the 
soil.  *  Worth,'  or  *  worthy,'  signifying,  as  it  does, 
the  place  warded  or  guarded,  tells  the  same  story,  as 
Bosworth,  Kingsworthy.  The  '  stokes  '  in  like  man- 
ner, as  Basingstoke,  Itchenstoke,  are  Saxon,  being 
places  stocka.ded,  with  stocks  or  piles  for  defence. 

♦  Pott,  £tym.  Forsch,  vol.  il  pt.  2,  p.  1172. 


ENGLISH  SHIRES.  3^5 

There  will  sometimes,  in  a  single  name,  be  kept 
the  record  of  two,  or  it  may  be  more,  great  social 
and  political  changes,  which  have  come  over  a  land, 
and  which  have  each  left  its  deposit.  "  When  we 
have  a  stream  called  Wansbeck-water,  and  know  that 
the  three  words  of  which  the  compound  is  made  up, 
all  signify  water,  the  first  being  Celtic  (as  in  Wan's- 
ford,  A-von),  the  second  German  {beck^-bach),  the 
last  English,  we  at  once  recognize  three  changes  of 
inhabitants,  to  whom  the  older  name  successively 
lost  its  significance."  * 

You  are  yourselves  learning,  or  hereafter  you  may 
be  teaching  others,  the  names  and  number  of  the 
Enghsh  counties  or  shires.  What  a  dull  routine  task 
for  them  and  for  you  this  may  be,  supplying  no  food 
for  the  intellect,  no  points  of  attachment  for  any  of 
its  higher  powers  to  take  hold  of !  And  yet  in  these 
two  little  words,  *  shire  '  and  *  county,'  if  you  would 
make  them  render  up  even  a  small  part  of  their 
treasure,  what  lessons  of  English  history  are  con- 
tained !  One  who  knows  the  origin  of  these  names, 
and  how  we  come  to  possess  such  a  double  nomen- 
clature, looks  far  into  the  social  condition  of  England 
in  that  period  when  the  strong  foundations  of  all  that 
has  since  made  England  glorious  and  great  were 
being  laid  ;  by  aid  of  these  words  may  detect  Huks 
which  bind  its  present  to  its  remotest  past ;  for  of 
lands  as  of  persons  it  may  be  said,  **  the  child  is 
father  of  the  man."  '  Shire,'  as  I  observed  just 
now,  is  connected  with  *  shear,'  *  share,'  and  is  prop- 

*  Donaldson,  New  CratyhiSy  3d  edit.  p.  17. 


366     THE  schoolmaster's  use  of  words. 

erly  a  portion  '  shered  '  or  *  shorn '  off.  When  a 
Saxon  king  would  create  an  earl,  it  did  not  lie  in 
men's  thoughts,  accustomed  as  they  were  to  deal 
with  realities,  that  such  could  be  a  merely  titular 
creation,  or  exist  without  territorial  jurisdiction ; 
and  a  *  share  '  or  *  shire  '  was  assigned  him  to  govern, 
which  also  gave  him  his  title.  But  at  the  Conquest 
this  Saxon  officer  was   displaced   by  a  Norman,  the 

*  earl '  by  the  *  count ' — this  title  of  *  count '  bor- 
rowed from  the  later  Roman  empire  meaning  origi- 
nally *  companion  '  (comes),  one  who  had  the  honor 
of  being  closest  companion  to  his   leader  ;  and  the 

*  shire '  was  now  the  'county'  (comitatus),  as  gov- 
erned by  this  *  comes.'  In  that  singular  and  inex- 
plicable fortune  of  words,  which  causes  some  to  dis- 
appear and  die  out  under  the  circumstances  apparently 
most  favorable  for  life,  others  to  hold  their  ground 
when  all  seemed  against  them,  *  count '  has  disap- 
peared  from   the    titles    of    English    nobility,    while 

*  earl  '  has  recovered  its  place  ;  although  in  evidence 
of  the  essential  identity  of  the  two  titles,  or  offices 
rather,  the  wife  of  the  earl  is  entitled  a  *  countess  *  ; 
and  in  further  memorial  of  these  great  changes  that 
so  long   ago    came   over   our  land,  the  two   names 

*  shire  '  and  '  county  '  equally  survive  as  in  the  main 
interchangeable  words  in  our  mouths. 

A  large  part  of  England,  all  that  portion  of  it  which 
the  Saxons  occupied,  is  divided  into  *  hundreds.' 
Have  you  ever  asked  yourselves  what  this  division 
means,  for  something  it  must  mean  ?  The  '  hundred  ' 
is  supposed  to  have  been  originally  a  group  or  settle- 
ment of  one  hundred  free  families  of  Saxon  colonists. 


WORDS  COMPARED  TO  MONEY.       36/ 

If  this  was  so  we  have  at  once  an  explanation  of  the 
strange  disproportion  between  the  area  of  the  *  hun- 
dred '  in  the  southern  and  in  the  more  northern  coun- 
ties— the  average  number  of  square  miles  in  a  *  hun- 
dred '  of  Sussex  or  Kent  being  three  or  four  and 
twenty ;  of  Lancashire  more  than  three  hundred. 
The  Saxon  population  would  naturally  be  far  the 
densest  in  the  earlier  settlements  of  the  east  and 
south,  while  more  to  west  and  north  their  tenure 
would  be  one  rather  of  conquest  than  of  colonization, 
and  the  free  families  much  fewer  and  more  scattered.* 
But  further  you  have  noticed,  I  dare  say,  the  excep- 
tional fact  that  the  county  of  Sussex,  besides  the 
division  into  hundreds,  is  divided  also  into  *  rapes  '  ; 
thus  the  '  rape '  of  Bramber,  and  so  on.  Now  this 
*  rape  '  is  a  memorial  of  the  violent  transfer  of  landed 
property  by  William  the  Conqueror,  the  lands  being 
rudely  plotted  out  for  division  by  the  *  rope '  or 
'  rape,'  which  was  a  favorite  way  with  these  Norman 
intruders  ;  and  thus  we  keep  in  this  word  a  memento 
to  the  present  day  in  our  language  of  the  rough  and 
ready  processes  adopted  by  the  men  of  other  times. t 
Let  us  a  little  consider,  in  conclusion,  how  we  may 
usefully  bring  our  etymologies  and  other  notices  of 
words  to  bear  on  the  religious  teaching  which  we 
would  impart  in  our  schools.  To  do  this  with  much 
profit  we  must  often  deal  with  words  as  the  Queen 
does  with   the  gold .  and    silver    coin    of  the   realm. 

*  Kemble,  T/ie  Saxons  in  England^  vol.  i.  p.  240 ;  Stubbs,  Con- 
stitutional History  of  England^  p.  98. 

f  Isaac  Taylor,  Names  and  Places^  2d  edit.  pp.  192,  365.  Compare 
the  use  of  (rxotviV/ia  in  the  Septuagint,  as  at  Deut.  xxxii.  9. 


368       THE  schoolmaster's  USE  OF  WORDS. 

When  this  has  been  current  long,  and  by  often  pass- 
ing from  man  to  man,  with  perhaps  occasional  clip- 
ping in  dishonest  hands,  has  lost  not  only  the  clear 
brightness,  the  well-defined  sharpness  of  outline,  but 
much  of  the  weight  and  intrinsic  value  which  it  had 
when  first  issued  from  the  royal  mint,  it  is  the  sove- 
reign's prerogative  to  recall  it,  and  issue  it  anew, 
with  the  royal  image  stamped  on  it  afresh,  bright  and 
sharp,  weighty  and  full,  as  at  first.  Now  to  a  process 
such  as  this  the  true  mint-masters  of  language,  and 
all  of  us  may  be  such,  will  often  submit  the  words 
which  they  use.  Where  use  and  custom  have  worn 
away  their  significance,  we  too  may  recall  and  issue 
them  afresh.  With  how  many  it  has  thus  fared  ! — 
for  example,  with  one  which  will  be  often  in  your 
mouths.  You  speak  of  the  *  lessons  '  of  the  day  ;  but 
what  is  *  lessons  '  here  for  most  of  us  save  a  lazy 
synonym  for  the  morning  and  evening  chapters  ap- 
pointed to  be  read  in  church  ?  But  realize  what  the 
church  intended  in  calling  these  chapters  by  this 
name  ;  namely,  that  they  should  be  the  daily  instruc- 
tion of  her  children  ;  listen  to  them  yourselves  as 
such  ;  lead  your  scholars  to  regard  them  as  such,  and 
in  this  use  of  *  lessons  '  what  a  lesson  for  every  one 
of  us  there  may  be  !  '  Bible  '  itself,  while  we  not  ir- 
reverently use  it,  may  yet  be  no  more  to  us  than  the 
sign  by  which  we  designate  the  written  Word  of 
God.  Keep  in  mind  that  it  properly  means  the  book, 
and  nothing  more ;  that  once  it  could  be  employed 
of  any  book  (in  Chaucer  it  is  so),  and  what  matter  of 
thought  and  reflection  lies  in  this  our  present  restric- 
tion of  *  bible  '  to  one  book,  to  the  exclusion  of  all 


LATIN  WORDS.  369 

others  !  So  strong  has  been  the  sense  of  Holy- 
Scripture  being  the  Book,  the  worthiest  and  best, 
that  one  which  explained  all  other  books,  standing 
up  in  their  midst, — like  Joseph's  kingly  sheaf,  to 
which  all  the  other  sheaves  did  obeisance, — that  this 
name  of  *  Bible  '  or  *  Book  *  has  been  restrained  to  it 
alone  ;  just  as  scripture  means  no  more  than  '  writing ' ; 
but  this  inspired  Writing  has  been  acknowledged  so 
far  above  all  other  writings,  that  this  name  also  it  has 
obtained  as  exclusively  its  own. 

Again,  something  may  be  learned  from  knowing 
that  the  *  surname,'  as  distinguished  from  the  '  Chris- 
tian '  name,  is  the  name  over  and  above,  not  *  sire  '- 
name,  or  name  received  from  the  father,  as  some  ex- 
plain, but  *  sur  '-name,  (super  nomen).  There  was 
never,  that  is,  a  time  when  every  baptized  man  had 
not  a  Christian  name,  the  recognition  of  his  personal 
standing  before  God  ;  while  the  surname,  the  name 
expressing  his  relation,  not  to  the  kingdom  of  God, 
but  to  a  worldly  society,  is  of  much  later  growth,  su- 
peradded to  the  other,  as  the  word  itself  declares. 
What  a  lesson  at  once  in  the  growing  up  of  a  human 
society,  and  in  the  contrast  between  it  and  the  heav- 
enly Society  of  the  Church,  might  be  appended  to 
this  explanation  !  There  was  a  period  when  only 
a  few  had  surnames  ;  had,  that  is,  any  significance  in 
the  order  of  things  temporal  ;  while  the  Christian 
name  from  the  first  was  common  to  every  man.  All 
this  -might  be  brought  usefully  to  bear  on  your  expo- 
sition of  the  first  words  in  the  Catechism, 

There  are  long  Latin  words,  which,  desire  as  we 
may  to  use  all  plainness  of  speech,  we  cannot  do 
16 


370     THE  schoolmaster's  use  of  words. 

without,  nor  find  their  adequate  substitutes  in  other 
parts  of  our  language  ;  words  which  must  always  re- 
main the  vehicles  of  much  of  that  truth  by  which  we 
live.  Now  in  explaining  these,  make  it  your  rule 
always  to  start,  where  you  can,  from  the  derivation, 
and  to  turn  to  that  as  often  as  you  can.  Thus  you 
wish  to  explain  '  revelation.'  How  much  will  be 
gained  if  you  can  attach  some  distinct  image  to  the 
word,  one  to  which  your  scholars,  as  often  as  they 
hear  it,  may  mentally  recur.  Nor  is  this  difficult. 
God's  '  revelation '  of  Himself  is  a  drawing  back 
of  the  veil  or  curtain  which  concealed  Him  from 
men  ;  not  man  finding  out  God,  but  God  discovering 
Himself  to  man  ;  all  which  is  contained  in  the  word. 
Or  you  wish  to  explain  *  absolution.'  Many  will  know 
that  it  has  something  to  do  with  the  pardon  of  sins  ; 
but  how  much  more  accurately  will  they  know  this, 
when  they  know  that  *  to  absolve  '  means  '  to  loosen 
from  ' :  God's  *  absolution  '  of  men  being  his  releasing 
of  them  from  the  bands  of  those  sins  with  which  they 
were  bound.  Here  every  one  will  connect  a  distinct 
image  with  the  word,  such  as  will  always  come  to  his 
help  when  he  would  realize  what  its  precise  meaning 
may  be.  That  which  was  done  for  Lazarus  naturally, 
the  Lord  exclaiming,  **  Loose  him,  and  let  him  go,'* 
the  same  is  done  spiritually  for  us,  when  we  receive 
the  '  absolution  '  of  our  sins. 

Tell  them  that  *  atonement'  means  *  at-one-ment ' — 
the  setting  at  one  of  those  who  were  at  twain  before, 
namely  God  and  man,  and  they  will  attach  to  *  atone- 
ment '  a  definite  meaning,  which  perhaps  in  no  way 
else  it  would  have  possessed  for  them  ;   and   from 


LATIN   WORDS.  371 

this  you  may  muster  the  passages  in  Scripture  which 
describe  the  sinner's  state  as  one  of  separation,  es- 
trangement, ahenation,  from  God,  the  Christian's 
state  as  one  in  which  he  walks  together  with  God, 
because  the  two  have  been  set  *  at  one.'  Or  you 
have  to  deal  with  the  following,  'to  redeem,'  'Re- 
deemer,' *  redemption.'  Lose  not  yourselves  in  vague 
generalities,  but  fasten  on  the  central  point  of  these, 
that  they  imply  *  a  buying,'  and  not  this  merely,  but 
*  a  buying  back  '  ;  and  then  connect  with  them,  so 
explained,  the  whole  circle  of  Scriptures  which  rest 
on  this  image,  which  speak  of  sin  as  a  slavery, 
of  sinners  as  bondsmen  of  Satan,  of  Christ's  blood  as 
a  ransom,  of  the  Christian  as  one  restored  to  his 
liberty. 

Many  words  more  suggest  themselves  ;  I  will  not 
urge  more  than  one  ;  but  that  one,  because  in  it  is  a 
lesson  more  for  ourselves  than  for  others,  and  with 
such  I  would  fain  bring  these  lectures  to  a  close. 
How  solemn  a  truth  we  express  naming  our  work  in 
this  world  our  'vocation,'  or,  which  is  the  same 
in  homelier  Anglo-Saxon,  our  '  caUing.'  What  a 
calming,  elevating,  ennobling  view  of  the  tasks  ap- 
pointed us  in  this  world,  this  word  gives  us.  We 
did  not  come  to  our  work  by  accident ;  we  did  not 
choose  it  for  ourselves  ;  but,  in  the  midst  of  much 
which  may  wear  the  appearance  of  accident  and 
self-choosing,  came  to  it  by  God's  leading  and  ap- 
pointment. How  will  this  consideration  help  us  to 
appreciate  justly  the  dignity  of  our  work,  though  it 
were  far  humbler  work,  even  in  the  eyes  of  men, 
than  that  of  any  one  of  us   here   present  !     What 


372       THE  SCHOOLMASTER'S  USE   OF  WORDS. 

an  assistance  in  calming  unsettled  thoughts  and  de- 
sires, such  as  would  make  us  wish  to  be  something 
else  than  that  which  we  are  !  What  a  source  of  con- 
fidence, when  we  are  tempted  to  lose  heart,  and  to 
doubt  whether  we  shall  carry  through  our  work  with 
any  blessing  or  profit  to  ourselves  or  to  others  !  It 
is  our  '  vocation,'  not  our  choosing,  but  our  *  calling ' ; 
and  He  who  *  called'  us  to  it,  will,  if  only  we  will 
ask  Him,  fit  us  for  it,  and  strengthen  us  in  it. 


BLACKBOARD     EXERCISES 

LECTURE  VII. 
THE  SCHOOLMASTER'S  USE  OF  WORDS. 


EXERCISE    No.  I. 
PAST  AND  PRESENT  STUDY  OF  WORDS. 

I.  The  material  helps  of  education. 

1.  Mechanical  devices. 

2.  Models,  maps,  and  books. 

3.  Word  implements. 

II.  Learning  and  teaching. 
in.  Safe  and  unsafe  guides. 

IV.  Common  methods  of  investigation. 

1.  Dr.  Johnson's  dictionary. 

2.  Dr.  Johnson's  derivation  of  "  peacock." 

3.  Swift's  derivation  of  "  ostler"  and  "  breeches." 
V.  Random  etymologies. 

1.  Early. 

(a.)  Menage. 

(^.)   Varro  :  **  pavo." 

(c.)    Pliny  :  '^  panther." 

2.  Medieval. 

{a.)  "Apis." 
(d.)   "Mors." 
3   Modern  :  "  Girl." 


374     THE  schoolmaster's  use  of  words. 

EXERCISE    No.  n. 
MAXIMS  AND  DIRECTIONS. 

I.  Absurd  etymology:  "Crypt." 
II.  Etymological  maxims. 

1.  Judge  not  by  appearance. 

2.  Do  not  depend  on  sounds. 

3.  Much  seems  probable  which  is  not  true. 

{a.)  "  Auge  "  and  01-717. 
{d.)  "  Auge  "  and  "  oculus." 
(c.)    "Caput"  and  "head." 
(V.)  "  Hospes"  and  "  guest." 
{e.)    "GeUdus"and  "cold.' 
(/.)  "  dens,"  "tooth,"  "zahn." 
(^.)"x^'',"''anser,""gans, 
(A.)  "Much"  and  "mucho." 
(/.)    "  Vulgus"and"  Volk." 
(/.)  oXos  and  "  whole." 
III.  Requisites  for  the  successful  study  of  words. 

1 .  To  disregard  phenomena. 

2.  To  determine  to  seek  the  ground  of  things. 

EXERCISE    No.  III. 
PHONETIC  SPELLING. 

I.  Effects  of  phonetic  spelling. 

1 .  Defaces  language. 

2.  Empties  it  of  its  treasures. 

3.  Cuts  the  nerve  between  past  and  present. 
II.  Its  fundamental  ideas. 

1.  That  words  should  be  spelt  as  sounded. 

2.  That  writing  should  be  subordinated  to  speaking. 
III.  Objections  to  phonetic  spelling. 

1 .  That  words  exist  for  the  eye  as  well  as  the  ear. 

2.  That  the  permanence  and  continuity  of  language 

'  depend  upon  the  written  form. 
(a.)  "  Letters." 
(d.)  "  Literature." 
{c.)  "  Unlettered.'* 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  375 

IV.  Gain  and  loss  of  phonetic  spelling. 

A.  Gain. 

1 .  Saving  of  labor  in  learning  to  spell. 

2.  Diminished  by  changes. 

B.  Loss. 

1.  Obliteration  of  the  ancestry  of  words. 

2.  Obliteration  of  the  relations  of  words, 

3.  Annihilation  of  the  soul  of  words. 

4.  Testimony  of  Bacon. 

V.  Results  of  phonetic  spelling. 

A.  Actual. 

1.  "  Savage." 

2.  "Fancy." 

3.  "Analize." 

4.  "Terns." 

5.  "Pois." 

B.  Proposed  :    That  the  learned  should  descend  to  the 

level  of  the  ignorant. 

EXERCISE    No.  IV. 
RELATIONS  OF  WORDS. 

I.  Unsuspected  relationship. 

1.  "Smith "and  "smite." 

2.  "  Wrong  "  and  "  to  wring." 

3.  "  Tort"  and  "  torqueo,"  etc. 
II.  Kinship  of  groups  of  words. 

1.  "Shire." 

2.  "Shore." 

3.  "Share." 

4.  "  Shears." 

5.  "Shred." 

6.  "Sherd." 

III.  Words  connected  by  one  central  meaning. 

1.  "  Post"  in  its  various  senses. 

2.  "  Stock"  in  its  various  senses. 

IV.  Unrelated  homonyms. 

1.  "Page." 

2.  "  League." 


37^     THE  schoolmaster's  use  of  words. 


3.  "Host." 

' 

4.  "Riddle." 

5.  "Mosaic." 

6.  "  Quire,"  etc. 

EXERCISE    No.  V. 

WORDS  FOR  STUDY  AND  RECREATION. 

I.  Words  which  provoke  and  promise  to 

reward 

INQUIRY. 

I.  "Candidate." 

2.  "Ambition." 

3.  "Verbum." 

4.  "  Classics." 

{a.)  Roman  origin. 

(d.)  Common  use. 

(c.)  Restriction. 

II.  Words  used  in  a  figurative  sense. 

I.  "  Insult." 

2.  "Affront." 

3.  "  Succour." 

4.  "  Relent." 

5.  "Reprehend." 

6.  "  Supercilious." 

7.  "  Subtle." 

8.  "  Astonished,"  etc. 

III.  Words  borrowed  from  life. 

I.  "Trivial." 

2.  "Rivals." 
IV.  Study  of  words  for  recreation. 

1.  "Relaxation." 

2.  "  Attentive  "  and  "  assiduous." 

3.  "  Diligence." 

4.  "  Indolence." 

EXERCISE    No.  VI. 
RELICS  OF  THE  PAST  IN  NAMES. 
I.  National  schools. 


BLACKBOARD   EXERCISES.  37/ 

II.  Impress  of  the  past  on  names. 

1.  "  Habsburg"  or  "  Hapsburg." 

2.  English  relics. 

(a.)  "England." 

(3.)   *'  Sussex"  and  "  Middlesex." 
(c.)   "  Norfolk  "  and  "  Suffolk." 
{d.)  *' Cornwall." 

3.  Danish  relics. 

4.  Norse  names. 

(a.)  "  Thorpe." 
{d.)   "Thwaite." 

5.  German  relics. 

(a.)  "Ham." 

(d.)   "  Worth,"  and  "  worthy." 

(c.)   "Stoke." 

III.  Composite  names  :  "  Wansbeck- water." 

IV.  History  in  names. 

1.  "  Shire,"  "  county,"  and  "  earl." 

2.  "  Hundreds  "  and  "  rapes." 

EXERCISE    No.  VII. 
RELIGIOUS  TEACHING  OF  WORDS. 

L  Words  compared  to  money. 

1 .  Wear  and  tear  of  money. 

2.  Royal  prerogative  to  recall. 

3.  Recoined  and  reissued. 

4.  Similar  process  in  words. 
II.  Church  words. 

1.  "  Lessons  "  of  the  day. 

2.  "Bible." 

3.  "Scripture." 

4.  "  Surname  "  and  "  Christian"  name. 

III.  Latin  words. 

1.  "Revelation." 

2.  "Absolution." 

3.  "Atonement." 

IV.  Conclusion  :  "  Vocation." 


QUESTIONS. 

LECTURE  VII. 
The  Schoolmaster's  Use  of  Words. 


What  did  the  exhibition  of  185 1  contain  ?   • 

Were  these  educational  helps  merely  mechanical  ? 

What  is  true  of  such  helps  ? 

How  are  words  potent  implements  ? 

What  was  said  on  the  occasion  of  the  exhibition  referred  to  ? 

What  is  the  object  of  the  closing  lecture? 

How  is  the  true  scholar  characterized  ? 

What  warning  is  necessary  ? 

What  must  be  kept  in  mind  ? 

What  is  said  of  Niebuhr  and  others  ? 

What  is  common  among  investigators  of  words  ? 

How  is  Johnson's  Dictionary  criticised  ? 

What  was  defective  in  his  preparation  for  such  a  work  ? 

What  instance  is  given  ? 

What  derivations  are  suggested  by  Swift  ? 

What  is  said  of  these  etymologies  ? 

How  is  a  word  in  one  language  often  derived  from  another  ? 

Give  a  few  specimens  of  this  style  of  dealing  with  words  from 
early  writers. 

What  is  said  of  Mdnage  ? 

Mention  some  false  medieval  etymologies.  Also,  some  of 
modern  times. 

What  does  experience  prove  in  reference  to  etymology  ? 


QUESTIONS.  379 

How  is  this  illustrated  by  an  anecdote  ? 

What  is  the  moral  of  the  story  ? 

What  is  true  of  the  resemblance  between  words  ? 

What  maxim  is  quoted  ? 

What  is  the  testimony  of  Leibnitz  ? 

What  caution  is  given  in  reference  to  etymologies  based  on 
sounds  ? 

What  has  an  illustrious  scholar  said  about  this  ? 

Give  some  examples. 

How  must  phenomena  be  regarded  ? 

What  fable  is  suggested  ? 

How  is  the  true  enquirer  described  ? 

What  is  said  about  phonetic  spelling  ? 

What  is  its  fundamental  idea  ? 

What  is  the  fallacy  of  the  system  ? 

How  does  every  word  exist  ? 

What  is  the  function  of  written  words  ? 

What  is  said  about  the  gain  of  phonetic  spelling  ? 

How  is  this  exaggerated  ? 

What  would  result  from  changes  in  pronunciation  ? 

What  more  serious  charge  is  brought  against  phonetic  spell- 
ing ? 

What  is  true  of  the  ancestry  of  words  ? 

What  is  true  of  the  association  of  words  ? 

What  is  true  of  the  inner  light  of  words  ? 

What  is  true  of  the  soul  of  words  ? 

How  is  Bacon  quoted  in  this  connection  ? 

How  may  we  estimate  the  losses  caused  by  phonetic  spell- 
ing? 

Illustrate  with  "  fancy"  ;  "  analyse." 

What  is  proposed  by  phonetic  spelling  ? 

What  is  said  of  an  attempt  to  introduce  phonography  in 
France  ? 

What  were  some  of  the  results  ? 

What  is  true  of  the  relationship  of  words  ? 

What  are  many  of  our  nouns  ? 

Give  examples  of  participles  used  as  nouns. 


380       THE  SCHOOLMASTER'S  USE  OF  WORDS. 

What  can  be  done  for  groups  of  words  which  seem  to  ac- 
knowledge no  kinship  ? 

Illustrate  with  the  verb  ^'  to  sheer." 

What  does  the  analysis  of  groups  of  words  require  ? 

What  other  process  is  suggested  ? 

What  is  said  of  words  used  in  different  senses  ? 

How  should  we  regard  words  thus  employed  ? 

How  should  they  be  investigated  ? 

What  is  originally  true  of  words  ? 

Illustrate  with*' post"  in  its  various  senses.  Also,  with 
*'  stock." 

What  is  said  about  words  spelt  and  pronounced  alike,  but 
different  in  derivation  and  usage  ? 

Give  examples  of  this. 

Where  is  the  identity  in  such  words  ? 

How  do  words  differ  in  their  promises  and  rewards  ? 

Give  the  history  of  "candidate";  "ambition";  "  ver- 
bum." 

Why  are  "  classics  "  so  called  ? 

What  is  true  of  words  used  in  a  figurative  sense  ? 

Give  examples  of  this. 

What  is  the  etymology  of  "  trivial  "  ? 

What  is  said  of  this  explanation  of  "  trivial  "  ? 

What  do  we  learn  from  "  rivals  "  ?  "  relaxation  "  ?  "  assid- 
uous "  ?  "  diligence  "  ?  *'  indolence  "  ? 

How  can  these  word-studies  be  turned  to  account  ? 

How  are  schools  to  be  made  "  national "  in  the  truest  sense  ? 

What  is  said  of  the  impress  of  the  past  on  names  ? 

What  is  narrated  of  Maximilian  the  First  ? 

What  English  names  are  suggested  for  illustration  ? 

How  have  the  Danes  left  their  mark  in  England  ? 

What  kind  of  names  are  found  in  Lincolnshire  ? 

Mention  some  Norse  relics  found  in  England.  Also,  Ger- 
man relics. 

Give  an  example  of  a  composite  name. 

What  do  we  learn  from  "  shire,"  **  county,"  and  "earl"  ? 
What  from  "  hundreds  "  ?  "  Rapes  "  ? 


QUESTIONS. 


381 


How  are  words  compared  to  money  ? 

What  do  we  learn  from  the  words  "lessons,"  *'  Bible,"  and 
*'  surname  "  ? 

What  method  should  be  followed  with  Latin  words  ? 
Illustrate  with  "  revelation,"  and  "  absolution." 
What  is  the  composition  of ''  atonement"  ? 
What  is  the  central  idea  in  "  redemption"  ? 
What  word  is  suggested  in  conclusion  ? 


ADDITIONAL   WORDS   FOR   ILLUSTRATION. 


LECTURE  VII. 


The  Schoolmaster's  Use  of  Words. 


1.  Abandon. 

2.  Adieu. 

3.  Afflict. 

4.  Aftermath. 
5-  Agog. 

6.  Almanac. 

7.  Antagonist. 

8.  Antimony. 

9.  Apology. 

10.  Aquiline. 

11.  Arabesque. 

12.  Author. 

13.  Bacchanalian. 

14.  Bosphorus. 

15.  Bourn. 

16.  Brandy. 

17.  Breakfast. 

18.  Cablegram. 

19.  Cadet. 

20.  Cant. 

21.  Caricature. 


22.  Chapel. 

23.  Character. 

24.  Clergy. 

25.  Climax. 

26.  Cockle. 

27.  Comedy. 

28.  Comrade. 

29.  Conscience. 

30.  Corsair. 

31.  Cousin. 

32.  Croak. 

33.  Dabchick. 

34.  Dean. 

35.  Dexterity. 

36.  Disease. 

37.  Disk. 

38.  Distinguish. 

39.  Doubt. 

40.  Dragon. 

41.  Dropsy. 

42.  Euphuism. 


3^2       THE  SCHOOLMASTER'S  USE  OF  WORDS, 


43.  Electricity. 

44.  Elephantine. 

45.  Etiquette. 

46.  Farm. 

47.  FarewelL 

48.  Ferret. 

49.  Filbert. 

50.  Flavor. 

51.  Florin. 

52.  Godd-bye. 

53.  Gossip. 

54.  Guilt. 

55.  Guy. 

56.  Haberdasher. 

57.  Harlequin. 

58.  Havoc. 

59.  Hawk. 

60.  Hazard. 

61.  Heaven, 

62.  Hug. 
63-  Hygiene. 

64.  Insect. 

65.  Jack. 

66.  Job. 

67.  Kidnap. 

68.  Label. 

69.  Liturgy. 

70.  Malapert. 

71.  Martial. 


72.  Melancholy. 

73.  Mischief. 

74.  Moat. 

75.  Muscle. 

76.  Mystery. 
77'  Neighbor. 

78.  Nephew. 

79.  Osprey. 

80.  Pamphlet. 

81.  Paramour. 

82.  Parrot. 
S3.  Peculiar. 

84.  Pert. 

85.  Pew. 

S6.  Popinjay. 

87.  Pry. 

88.  Protocol. 

89.  Racy. 

90.  Sanscrit. 

91.  Snob. 

92.  Tally. 

93.  Tartar. 
94-  Tea. 

95.  Team. 

96.  Telephone. 

97.  Wampum. 

98.  Wigwam. 

99.  Wife. 
100.  Woman, 


MISCELLANEOUS  WORDS  FOR  ILLUSTRATION, 


1.  Abominable. 

2.  Abundance. 

3.  Advocate. 

4.  Affable. 

5.  Alert. 

6.  Allude. 

7.  Andalusia. 

8.  Anemone. 

9.  Ascertain. 

10.  Atom. 

11.  Auspicious. 

12.  Bad. 

13.  Baffled. 

14.  Baluster. 

15.  Bankrupt. 

16.  Bedlam. 

17.  Beggar. 

18.  Beldame. 

19.  Belfry. 

20.  Blue-stocking. 

21.  Bore. 

22.  Brand-new. 

23.  Bribe. 

24.  Brigand. 

25.  Buffoon. 

26.  Caesar. 

27.  Candor. 

28.  Catarrh. 

29.  Cater. 

30.  Cemetery. 

31.  Chivalry. 

32.  Chrysostom. 


33.  Clown. 

34.  Congeries. 

35.  Consider. 

36.  Contraband. 

37.  Corpse. 

38.  Coward. 

39.  Craven. 

40.  Crony. 

41.  Crawfish. 

42.  Crusade. 

43.  Cunning. 

44.  Curmudgeon. 

45.  Dandelion. 

46.  Dandy. 

47.  Dastard. 

48.  Debate. 

49.  Debauch. 

50.  Debonaire. 

51.  Decent. 

52.  Defalcation. 

53.  Deliberation. 

54.  Delirium. 

55.  Demoralization, 

56.  Diadem. 

57.  Digit. 

58.  Egregious. 

59.  Enthusiasm. 

60.  Equivocation. 

61.  Exorbitant. 

62.  Extenuate. 

63.  Facetious. 

64.  Faint. 


384 


MISCELLANEOUS   WORDS. 


65.  Fanatic. 

66.  Father-land. 

67.  Felon. 

68.  Fellow. 

69.  Female. 

70.  Foible. 

71.  Foolscap. 

72.  Freemason. 
*]'>f.  Freshet. 

74.  Friar. 

75.  Frontispiece. 

76.  Frugal. 
'j'j.  Furlong. 

78.  Gasconade. 

79.  Gibberish. 

80.  Gladiolus. 

81.  Gooseberry. 

82.  Grocer. 

83.  Guilt. 

84.  Gusto. 

85.  Handsome. 

86.  Helterskelter. 

87.  Homely. 

88.  Humor. 

89.  Hyperborean. 

90.  Idea. 

91.  Imbroglio. 

92.  Ignoramus. 

93.  Infant. 

94.  Insinuate. 

95.  Interlard. 

96.  Intuition. 

97.  Inveterate. 

98.  Island. 

99.  Kindly. 
100.  King, 
loi.  Let. 


102.  Lethe. 

103.  Liberal. 

104.  Loadstone. 

105.  London. 

106.  Lout. 

107.  Luxury. 

108.  Maxim. 

109.  Meddle, 
no.  Minute. 

111.  Modern. 

112.  Morn. 

113.  Mortal. 

114.  Mortified. 

115.  Mountebank. 

116.  Negotiate. 

117.  Newfoundland. 

118.  Nice. 

119.  Nightmare. 

120.  Nostrum. 

121.  Nugget. 

122.  Occident. 

123.  Ocean. 

124.  Ogre. 

125.  Omnibus. 

126.  Orient. 

127.  Painful. 

128.  Palmy. 

129.  Pantaloon. 

130.  Parasite. 

131.  Parliament. 

132.  Parlor. 

133.  Pensive. 

134.  Peremptory. 

135.  Pernicious. 

136.  Photograph. 

137.  Plunder. 

138.  Poltroon. 


MISCELLANEOUS   WORDS. 


385 


139.  Precocious. 

140.  Preposterous. 

141.  Prevaricate. 

142.  Proctor. 

143.  Prose. 

144.  Providence. 

145.  Provost. 

146.  Quaint. 

147.  Qualification. 

148.  Quarry. 

149.  Quixotic. 

150.  Radical. 

151.  Rascal. 

152.  Relish. 

153.  Reluctance. 

154.  Ridicule. 

155.  Rob. 

156.  Rose-mary. 

157.  Satire. 

158.  Saucy. 

159.  Scamp. 

160.  Sceptre. 

161.  Scoundrel. 

162.  Scrupulous. 

163.  Sensible. 

164.  Sexton. 

165.  Sinister. 

166.  Squirrel. 

167.  Stickler. 

168.  Stigmatize. 

169.  Stereotype. 

170.  Strange. 

171.  Style. 

172.  Subtle. 

173.  Suspense. 


174.  Suspicion. 

175.  Sycophant. 

176.  Tabby. 

177.  Tabernacle. 

178.  Tact. 

179.  Tandem. 

180.  Teetotalism. 

181.  Telegram. 

182.  Terminus. 

183.  Throne. 

184.  Toady. 

185.  Toilet. 

186.  Topsy-turvy. 

187.  Travail. 

188.  Truth. 

189.  Umbrage. 

190.  Uncouth. 

191.  Usury. 

192.  Vagabond. 

193.  Vagrant. 

194.  Vanity. 

195.  Verdict. 

196.  Vinegar. 

197.  Visionary. 

198.  Vixen. 

199.  Vulgate. 

200.  Wanton. 

201.  Wealth. 

202.  Welkin. 

203.  Witch. 

204.  Wizard. 

205.  Wretch. 

206.  Yearning. 

207.  Yeoman. 


INDEX   OF  WORDS. 


PAGE 

Abbacinare loo 

Aborigines. l88 

Absolution 370 

Academy 182 

Acheron 77 

Affront 358 

Agate 180 

Ajax 41 

'  AKpcoTTjpidCeiv 100 

Albern   118 

Albert 68 

Albion 75 

Alcoran 243 

Alderman 199 

Alemanni 218 

Allegiance 306 

Alligator 242 

Alms 255 

Ambition 356 

America 218,  187 

Amethyst 195 

Analyse 348 

Ananas 242 

Anglia 362 

Animosity 104 

Antistrophic 239 

Apocryphal   264 

Arras 180 

Artful 102 

"Apros 192 

Ascendancy 194 

Asia  Minor ,....   217,218 

Assassin 99,  165 

Assentation m 

Assentator m 

Assiduous 360 


PACK 

Assimilation 231 

Assinissimo 247 

Assisi 42 

Astonish 358 

Atavism 239 

Athanasius 45 

Atlas 182 

Atonement 370 

Attentive 360 

Atrius  Umber 48 

Avernus , 77 

Avunculize 248 

Badeker 183 

Bafomet 46 

Baldachin 179 

Bantam 181 

Banter 246 

Barb 181 

Barnacle 194 

Basilisk 8i 

Bayonet. 179 

Beatitas 236 

Beatitudo 236 

Beguine 258 

Bezant 181 

Bible 368 

Biggen 180 

Bilboa 179 

Bishop 255 

Blackbird 196 

Blague 249 

Blaguer 249 

Bohemian 187 

Bonhomie 119 

Book 192,  369 


388 


INDEX   OF   WORDS. 


PAGE 

Bobr loi 

Breviary. 259 

Brunt 349 

Buhl 184 

Buonaparte 43 

Burke 246 

By 364 

Cadaver 261 

Cagot 258 

Calamitas 190 

Calculation 191 

Calico 180 

Calling 371 

Cambric ', 179 

Camelia 184 

Camelopard 80 

Canada 261 

Candidate 356 

Candle 195 

Cannibal 261 

Canonical 216 

Caprice 74 

Capuchin 176 

Carhunculus 83 

Cardinal 165 

Carp loi 

Carronade 1 79 

Castus 358 

Catchpole 135 

Catholic 175,   178,216 

Cavalloni 70 

Celadon 1S5 

Celandine 79 

Cerf- volant 80 

Chalcedony 180 

Chapel 260 

Chaste 358 

Cheat 136 

Cheater 136 

Cherry 181 

Chevalier  d'industrie 125 

Chimerical 182 

Chouan 261 

Chrestus 118 

Christian 216,  220 

Christology 254 

Christus 118 

Church 159 


Ciborium 260 

Cicerone 134,   182 

Circle 239 

Clara 46 

Classical 173 

Classics 357 

CLesel 45 

Club 136 

Cockatrice 172 

Cocytus 77 

Collect 259 

Columba 47 

I  Companion 358 

j  Conceit loi 

1  Conciliatrix 125 

!  Convertisseur 244 

I  Convey 124 

I  Copper 179 

;  Copperhead 128 

':  Cordwain 180 

'  Cornwall 363 

[  Cosmopolite 229 

Cosmos 219 

Count 366 

j  County   365 

'  Crafty 102 

1  Crape 179 

Cravat 180 

Crocodile 85 

Ciypt 341 

Crystal 171 

Cuckoo-flower 78 

Curfew 190 

I  Curia  Komana 132 

Currant 181 

Cynarctomachy 248 

Cyprian 45 

Dactyle 85 

Daffodil 256 

Dahlia 184 

Daisy 78 

Dalmatic 180 

Damask 179 

Damhele 199 

Damson 1 79 

Days  of  the  Week 196 

Decimate 195 

Dedal 182 


INDEX  or  WORDS. 


389 


PAGE 

Delator 244 

Delf 180 

Demonetize 231 

Demure 102  j 

Denigreur 112! 

Derailler 323  ! 

Derayer 323  ' 

Despecificate 295 

Desultory 73 

Desynonymize 295 

Diaper 179 

Dictator 265 

Dilapidated 20 

Diligence 360 

Dimity 180 

Dinde 187 

Dime 103 

Disastrous. , 194 

Discernment 318 

Discretion 318 

Dissimilation 231 

Distemper 193 

Dittany 256 

Diversion 21 

Dolomite 185 

Dominican 47 

Dominissimus 247 

Donat 183 

Adoprjfia 1 14 

Dormitantius 42 

Dragonnade 244 

Drepanum 75 

Dropsy 256 

Druid 188 

Dunce 168,  183 

Duplicity 117 

Earl 366 

Eau  de  vie 126 

Ecstasy 22,  307 

Electrum. 291 

Eleemosynary 115,   255 

Elend 87 

EUinge 88 

Ember 259' 

England 218,  362  j 

Ennui 129 

'EirixaipeKaKla 99 

Epicurean 182 


Epidamnus 48 

Epiphanes o . . . .  44 

Episcopal 255 

Erigena 259 

Ermine 181 

Escheat 135 

Escobarder 185 

Esemplastic 237 

Essay 252 

Essene 259 

Essentia 236 

Essil 88 

Esther 68 

Estimation 191 

E'v-ffOiia 119 

EvXoyla 48 

Eumenides 48 

Europe 217 

Euxine 48 

Exonerate 358 

Expend 191 

Expense. 191 

Extradition 231 

Faience. 180 

Fancy 348 

Favor 252 

Fee 191 

Felix 42 

Fiacre 185 

Flamboyant 87 

Flaneur 250 

Florence 77 

Florida 77 

Fortunate 120 

Fourmiller 74 

Frank 23,  164,  218 

Frieze 179 

Fuchsia 184 

Fuller 47 

Fustian 179 

Galvanism 184 

Gamboge 180 

Gamin 250 

Ganch loo 

Gas 263 

Gaunt 41 

Gauze , 180 


390 


INDEX   OF   WORDS. 


PAGE 

G6ne 129 

Gentian 183 

Germans 218,  260 

Germany 218,  260 

Gilt -cup 78 

Gypsy 187 

Gloze 121 

Gnostic 176,  177 

Godsacre 87 

Golden  knop 81 

Golden  rain 79 

Goldfinch 81 

Gordian 182 

Gospel 217 

Gossomer 82 

Gothic 172 

Goulard 184 

Great  Britain 218 

Greeks 217 

Guillotine.. 245 

Guinea 181 

Hablador ; . . .   138 

Hableur 138 

Habsburg 362 

Haft 350 

Halcyon 82 

Ham 364 

Hands 1 20 

Happiness 119 

Haversack 196 

Heathen 161 

Hector 186 

Helen 43,  44 

"E|ts 114 

Herculean 182 

Hermeneutics 198 

Hermetic 182 

Hidalgo 262 

Hildebrand 44 

Himalaya 75 

Hipocras 182 

Homoousion 36 

Honetete 129 

Honor 122 

Hostia 78 

Hottentot 261 

Huguenot 258 

Humanitas 113 


I  Humility. . . . , 

j  Humor 

I  Humorous. . . , 

!  Hundred 

1  "TiroKopi^effOai. 
i  Hurricane  . . . , 


I  lapetus 

I  Idiot 

i  'iSidrrjs 

I  Idolater 

j  Idolatry 

j  Imbecile 

!  Impatientia  . . . 
j  Impotens 

Incivisme 

!  India 

Indigentia 

Indigo 

Indo-European. 

Indolence 

Indolentia 

Ineptus 

Iners 

I  Infanticidiura  . . 

I  Influence 

I  Innocent 

Insult 

Integrity , 

Invidentia 

Invidia 

Irenaeus 

Isothermal 

Italy 


Jaherr  . . 
Jalap . . . 
Jane  . . . 
Japheth. 
Jehovah 

Jet 

Journey. 
Jove  . . . 
Jovial, . . 
Jutland  . 


Karfunkel 

Kartoffel 232, 

Ketzer 


tKgk 
106 
192 
192 
366 

125 

190 

189 

130 
130 
224 
224 
358 
236 

"3 

245 
217 
236 
180 
172 
360 
236 
137 
78 
227 
194 
118 
358 
109 
236 

235 
46 

238 
218 

III 
180 
180 

189 
189 
180 

195 
189 
194 


S3 
241 

257 


INDEX   OF  WORDS. 


391 


•  PAGE 

Kickshaws 256 

Kind 116 

Kingfisher 81 

Knave loi 

Knot 183 

Labarum 259 

Laburnum 79 

Lady-bird 81 

Lambiner 185 

Lanterner 245 

Latium 77 

Lazar 183 

Lazaretto 183 

Legend .  166 

Lendemain 243 

Leonine 265 

Leopard 172 

Lessons 368 

Letters 345 

Lewd 103 

Libertine 112 

Library 192 

Licori  je 262 

Lierre 243 

Limbo 217 

Limner 190 

Lingot 243 

Lollard 258 

Long  pig 123 

Love-child 124 

Lumber 191 

Lunacy 198 

Luscinia 84 

Lutheran 176 

Lyons,  Gulf  of 188 

Macassar 180 

Macedonia 217 

Maculist 128 

Madeira 76 

Magnesia 1 79 

Magnet 179 

Magnolia 184 

Mahomet 46,  169 

Majolica 180 

Maleventum 48 

Malevolentia loo 

Mammet 169 


I  PAGE 

Manes 45 

Manichseus 45 

Mansarde 1 85 

Marah 41 

Marechal 199 

Marshal 199 

Margaret ; 68 

Marienfaden 82 

Mariposa 80 

Marivandage 185 

Mass 259 

Maudlin .' 102 

j  Mausoleum 182 

I  Megrim 256 

Menial loi 

Mentor 186 

Mercurial 194 

Mere-greot 83 

i  Merkani 261 

{  Men-y-dancers 81 

1  Methodist 176,  307 

;  Metrophanes 45 

Miniature 196 

Minion loi 

Miscreant 165 

Miser 108 

Mithridate 182 

Mob 246 

Momier   1 76 

Monachus 217 

Monk 217 

Mons  Pileatus 84 

Morbidezza 133 

Morea 75 

Morganatic 260 

Morimo 30 

Mors 341 

Mosaic 354 

Mouton 43 

I  Mulierositas 236 

Muslin 180 


Nabal 41 

Naomi 41 

Naples 196 

Natal 77 

Natolie 243 

Naturalist 307 

Nausea 196 


392 


INDEX  OF  WORDS. 


PAGE 

Negus 184 

Nero 45 

Neutralization 231 

New  Forest 196 

New  Testament 217 

Nicotine 184 

Nightingale  84 

Nirvana 36 

Noah's  Ark 81 

Nonna 217 

Normans 218 

Novelist 306 

Noyade 245 

Nun 217 

Obligation 115 

Oblige 115 

Obsequium 252 

Occissimus 247 

Octogamy 248 

Oculissimus 247 

Officious loi 

Orrery 184 

Ostler 339 

Ottimissimo 247 

Outlandish 134 

Pagan 160 

Pain 108,  360 

Palace 196 

Palsy 256 

Pander 186 

Panic 182,  198 

Pantaloon 183 

Panther 341 

Papable 239 

Paper 192 

Paradise 106 

Paraffin 262 

Paralysis 256 

Paramour loi 

Parchment 180 

Parlador 13S 

Parleur 138 

Passion 112 

Pastime 20 

Paterine 259 

Patruissimus 247 

Paulician 259 


Pavaner 

Peace 

Peach , 

Peacock  

Pecore , 

Pecunia 

j  Pedant   

!  Pelagius 

I  Pellegrino 

j  Pennalism 

Pentheus 

Peony 

Perfide 

Petroleuse 

Pfaffe 

'  Pheasant 

Philadelphus 

Philippic 

'  Philosopher 

:  Philpot. 

Phlegethon 

Phoebe 

Physician 

Piaculum 

Pict 

:  Pineapple 

':  Plague 

Plantation 

Plausible 

Poenitentia 

,  Poet 

\  Poids 

Pompifex 

I  Pope 

Port 

'  Port  Natal 

Post , 

Potato 

Potus 

Poudre  de  succession 

Pransus  

Prejudicie 

Prejudicial , 

Prime  minister 

Privilegium , 

Prometheus 

Protean , 

Province 

Prude 


136, 


PAGB 

74 
131 

181 

339 


191 

lOI 

45 
134 
265 

41 
182 
130 
245 
136 
181 

43 

182 

253 
47 
77 

198 

233 
III 

189 
242 
108 

307 
103 
288 

88 
349 

45 
199 
181 

77 
351 
241 
123 
123 
123 
104 
104 
177 

46 

43 
182 
260 
116 


INDEX   OF  WORDS. 


393 


PAGE 

Prussia 218 

Prussians 218 

Purveyors 124 

Quarantine 19S 

Quassia 184 

Quean 199 

Queen 199 

Quince 181 

Quinsy 256 

Quintessence 194 

Quirites 260 

Quixotic 186 

Rape 367 

Rapture 22 

Rationalist 178,  253 

Ratten 247 

Ravishment 22 

Razzia 245 

Redeemer 371 

Reformation.    175 

Refugee 244 

Regeneration 106 

Rejoice 131 

Relaxation 360 

Relent 358 

Religion 22 

Renaissance 174 

Reprehend 358 

Resentment 103 

Resipiscentia 288 

Retaliation 103 

Retract 105 

Revelation 370 

Reynard 1 86 

Rhubarb 180 

Rickets. 256 

Ringleader  ". loi 

Rivals 359 

Rococo 250 

Rodomontade 186 

Romantic 173 

Rome 218 

Rose-window S6 

Rossignol 84 

Roue    244 

Roundhead 176,  257 


Rubric 196 

Rupee 192 

Sacrament 107,  162 

Sseleg 118 

Salic 261 

Salutificator 226 

Salvator 225 

Sanders 44 

Sangraal 260 

Sans-culotte 245 

Sarcasm 359 

Sarcophagus 195 

Sardanapalisme 1 85 

Sardonic 194 

Sarsnet 1 79 

Satanasius 45 

Saturnine 194 

Saturnus 261 

I  Savage 348 

Savior 225 

i  Sbirri 135 

I  Schadenfreude 99 

i  Schalk 103 

I  Schlecht 118 

I  Sclave 24 

I  Scripture 369 

;  Secularization 231 

I  Sedakat 119 

i  Segesta 48 

I  Self-sufficient 132 

I  Semitic 172 

j  Senlac 84 

Sermo 288 

j  Servator 226 

j  Severitas 261 

I  Shakespeare 47 

I  Shalloon 180 

j  Sham 246 

Sherry 181 

I  Shire 350 

I  Short  pig   123 

I  Sierra 20 

j  Sign 191 

j  Silhouette 185 

'  Silk 179 

Silly 118 

Simagr^e 112 

Simony 183 


394 


INDEX   OF  WORDS. 


Simple 117 

Sincere 358 

Slave 24 

Smith 349 

Solecism 181 

Soliloquium 252 

^.c/jLttTU 120 

Sophist 162 

Sospitator 226 

Souls 120 

Spaniel 181 

Specious 102 

Squatter 199 

Squirrel 81,  256 

Stellio 81 

Stellionatus 86 

Stentorian 186 

Stephen 46,68 

Sterling 181 

Sterry 44 

Stipulation 190 

Stock 352 

Stoke 364 

Styx 77 

Subscribe 191 

Subtle 358 

Succinum 291 

Succor 358 

Siihnen , no 

Siinde no 

Supercilious 358 

Superstition 266 

Surgeon 256 

Surname 369 

Surplice 196  j 

Susanna 68  i 

Swindler lOi  | 

Sychar 46 

Sycophant 268 

Synonym 284 

Synonyms : 

Abdicate,  desert 316,  317 

Abhor,  detest,  hate,  loathe,  304, 

305 
Apprehend,  comprehend  . .  312 
Arrogant,  insolent,  presump- 
tuous   303 

Astrology,  astronomy 300 

Authentic,  genuine 305 


PACK 

Blanch,  whiten 299 

Benefice,  fief 320 

Charity,  love 299 

Cloke,  palliate 300 

Compulsion,  obligation. ...  314 

Congratulate,  felicitate. . . .  309 

Contrary,  opposite 313 

Despair,  diffidence 301 

Discover,  invent 310 

Education,  instruction 315 

Enthusiasm,  fanaticism.  . .  .   295 
Envy,  emulation 320 

Famine,  hunger 295 

Fancy,  imagination 294 

Illegible,  unreadable 299 

Interference,  interposition. .  301 

Nave,  ship 299 

Nay,  no 302 

Revenge,  vengeance 296 

Slander,  detraction 320 

Vindicta,  ultio 296 

Yea,  yes 302 

Tabinet 184 

Talent 114 

Tansy 256 

Tantalize 182 

Taprobane 76 

Tarantula 181 

Tawdry 102 

Temper 193 

Tenorisme 245 

Teuffel   44 

Theocracy 224 

Theotokos 36 

Thorpe 364 

Thrall 190 

Thraldom 190 

Thrasonical 186 

Timeserver loi 

Tinsel 102 

Tobacco ,    180 

Tolosa 46 

Tontine 184 


INDEX  OF  WORDS. 


395 


PAGB 

Topaz. 82 

Tormentoso 48 

Tort 349 

Tory 176 

Tott 44 

Tragedy 265 

Tram 184 

Transliteration 231 

Transport 21 

Transubstantiation 217 

Tribulation 71 

Trinacria 75 

Trinity 216 

Triticum 71 

Trivial 359 

Turkey 187 

Turquoise 180 

Tyrant 218 

Tyranny 218 

Unfortunate ji20 

Unitarian 174 

Urbanus 252 

Usignuolo 84 

Vane , 44 

Varlet loi 

Verb 356 

Verbum 356 


PAGE 

Vernicle 183 

Verres 45 

Victima 78 

Vigilantius 42 

Villain loi 

Vincentius 46 

Virtue 115 

Vitiositas 236 

Vocalitas 236 

Vocation .' 371 

Volcanic 182 

Voltaic 184 

Voluble 102 

Volume 192 

Waldenses 258 

Wales 363 

Wansbeck-water 365 

Whig 176 

Whitsunday. 259 

Wiclif 46 

Windfanner 82 

Windhover 82 

Worsted 179 

Worth 364 

Worthy 364 

Wrong 349 

Zigeuner 26c 


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